Children of the Wild
by DeenaSoraDrake
Summary: We know there were four chosen for the mission to make real the dreams of children to meet real dinosaurs, but what if there was one more that wasn't chosen, and defied orders to stay behind? What chaos would ensue with another predator around? Please R/R
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own "We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story". The 1993 movie is owned by Steven Spielberg, his animation studio Amblimation, and is distributed by Universal Pictures. The 1987 book the movie is based on is owned by its author Hudson Talbott and its publisher, Dragonfly Books. I only own the original character.**

Trees and water stretched for miles across a vast prehistoric wetland. Within the seemingly endless branches of rivers swam large fish that would rival today's record catches, and other aquatic life. Along the stretches of sandy beaches roamed various animals, including dinosaurs, like small herds of long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs known to us as Paralititans that would slug along or stop for refreshment. Also calling these wetlands home was a large predator known to us as Spinosaurus. Scaling about 16 or so feet (4.87 meters) tall, almost as tall as three grown men on top of each other, and about 50 feet (15.24 meters) in length, about as long as two school buses and a subcompact car lined up bumper to bumper, she was one of the largest predatory dinosaurs that ever lived. What really made her stand out, though, was the sail on her back about 5.5 feet (1.67 meters) tall, and her snout, which was about 3 feet long from tip to cheek.

She walked along one of the beaches, watching the river next to her for her favorite prey, the little scaly creatures that swam through water. Her luck had been down recently, and she was hoping to snag something soon. She suddenly saw movement in the water close by. She slowly dipped the outer half of her snout into the water, and slowly opened her mouth for the trap. While she waited for her prey, she made sure to breathe through her nostrils set high on her snout. She glanced over to where she saw the movement in the water, and noticed that it was still coming towards her, but was starting to look to swim around her trap. She waited a few more moments, and that possibility was looking to come true. No longer patient, the Spinosaurus took her mouth out of its trap position, and started wading into the water, snapping at the movement. She could now see that it was a couple scaly swimmers, but they quickly evaded her snapping jaws of curved teeth, and darted away through the water. Irritated, the Spinosaurus emerged her snout from the water, and while water still dripped down from it, she gave out a loud roar: _GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRGH!_

She then heard a strange noise coming from the space above the area. She searched for the sound until she saw a huge round object flying through the sky on several sets of wings that look too small to be able to support the object, but it was making its way toward her island. Not sure what it is, she waded further into the water, submersing her whole body except for the top of her head, and some of her spine stuck out. She watched the object fly overhead, and land somewhere in the flat greens on the island she was on. She waded out of the water, and made her way into the flat greens in the direction she saw the object fly.

A couple moments later, she saw the large object where it had landed. There was an empty space in the underside of it now, and a flat object underneath the empty space, and it seemed to be attached to the empty space at either side of its shorter sides. As soon as she took this in, she noticed that two creatures were walking away from the large flying object, and further into the flat greens. One was about as tall as her knee, and walked on two feet. The other was not much more in her eyes than one of the buzzing pest creatures of which she encounters a lot, only this one had a very unusually round head compared any of the pest creatures she's known.

She got set to follow them, thinking the taller one could be an easy snack, but then a strong scent caught her attention. It smelled like meat, possibly the kind she manages to get from one of the other large creatures in her area, only this smelled like a sweeter meat than anything she's tasted. She followed the scent, turning her head back toward the large flying object, as that was where the scent seemed to be coming from. She walked up to the large object cautiously, but her hunger pressed her on toward the scent of meat. Although lights were shining from the object, it didn't seem to be alive, she decided. She pauses at the empty space, noticing that there was space inside the large object, and her instincts told her somewhere inside was the food she was seeking.

She looked at the space between the ground underneath the space, and the place where she will be standing inside the object. She noticed a large rock, about as tall as the taller new creature she saw, right next to one of the longer sides of the flat object on the ground, between the two things that were attaching the flat object to the large flying object. She studied the rock and the opening into the large object for a minute or two, trying to let her instinct form an idea. She took a step back, then lunged herself toward the rock. Getting close enough, she reached out with one leg, stepping on the rock, then used her momentum to rebound off the rock and upward into the opening. Letting her instinct wing the rest of her way in, she thrust her arms out, digging her claws into the material of the large object, while bringing her free foot up to grasp the edge of the opening. Using her combined momentum and strength in her arms and legs all in one move, she half pulled, half crawled in through the opening.

Bringing herself back upright, she immediately sniffed for the sweet meaty scent. She instantly found it again, and she followed it forward. She could also faintly smell other scents- it smelled like three large creatures, sort of like the kinds she shared her home land with, but these new ones didn't smell like ones from around her area. She didn't think any more on them, and continued following the sweet scent. It led her to a smaller opening at the far end of the inside, about as tall as her, and an obstruction was in front of the opening, mostly blocking entry into the opening, but there was still a little bit open.

The Spinosaurus let her instincts again hatch an idea. She placed her clawed hands on either side of the obstruction, and tried to pull it away from the opening. In the process, she discovered that it wasn't as heavy as she guessed, and also one side of it was attached to one side of the opening, but the obstruction still unblocked the opening. She poked her head into the opening; she could feel cold air from inside it, but the sweet scent, now stronger than ever, encouraged her inside.

She slouched her body as she walked into the opening so her back could fit under the top of it. She took one step at a time into the space, which she found had a little source of light in the middle of the top of it. She only slightly noticed the other varieties of food lined up on flat objects on either side of her, but she ignored this food, knowing it was mostly for the type of large creatures she hunted, the kinds that ate the flat green food. Most of her attention was directed straight ahead, where she saw piles of little food objects, round and a little long at the same time, and from the smell, they were meat, the same sweet scent she had been following.

She instantly snapped her mouth out to them, grabbing several at once. She bit down on them, and their relatively sweet flavor filled her mouth, and she swallowed a little bit of the meat down. However, there was a subtle bite in the flavor she didn't like. She slowly bit down on them again, and the…zing overwhelmed her taste buds (how did she know those words?). The taste was so horrible to her that she spat out the meat before she finished the second bite. She growled in distaste, and then felt something in her mind, a feeling of growth and increasing activity. She could feel her instincts grow weaker, and her thoughts stronger. She let herself look down while her mind grew, and noticed that her…claws on her…feet and hands broaden and dull on their own. She found herself confused both how her claws were doing this, and also how she suddenly knew words she'd never known before. She almost wanted to guess that it was something in the meat she ate.

"Well, what do we have here, Vorb?" a voice said behind her. She lifted her head back up, turning it to one side so that she could see behind her, back towards the…doorway. Standing there was an old human man, with a white moustache, and white hair showing from the back of his head, and in large tufts behind each ear, with a lone tuft on the very top of his head. It was the same man she saw walk into the vegetation earlier. He was now carrying a few types of plants, including ferns and even some sort of plant that was obviously from the river. She noticed that his facial expression was nothing short of a mix between wondering and curiosity. Over one shoulder she saw the little hovering green creature, which she could now see was actually wearing a clear protective bubble around his head…an air helmet of some sorts? The little creature was hovering in the air using some sort of device behind his back from which came a little pole that ended with something spinning…propellers? Once again, her rapidly growing vocabulary astounded the Spinosaurus.

"What should we do with her, sir?" the little creature…Vorb did the man call him?

"Well, Vorb, I don't think we have much choice here, but don't worry. I know just what to do about our stowaway," the man said with a smile.


	2. Wishes of the Future

"Oh, come on. Please, captain? I know I can behave," the Spinosaurus pleaded. She was in the third and topmost deck of the ship. In front of her was the old man from before, whom she had learned was called Captain Neweyes. In his right hand, he held a mug of a steaming liquid with a spoon sticking in it, possibly tea, since he kept fiddling inside the liquid with the spoon every once in a while. The little alien called Vorb had just left for some important matter Neweyes assigned him. The room was quite large, extending the whole length of the ship. In the middle of the floor behind where the Spinosaurus and Neweyes were standing, and a little towards the rear of the ship, was a hole for the elevator shaft for the lift that carried the ship's inhabitants between the decks. In the middle of the room in the more frontal part of the ship were curtains surrounding something in a circular fashion. Whatever the curtains were concealing, it was glowing with such a bright light, the curtains seemed to be glowing, and most of the room's illumination was coming from it. A spot shone on one of the walls of the ship, from reflected light from the gold medal the Spinosaurus had around her neck. The medal read, "MY NAME IS CLEO."

"I know you can, Cleo, but I don't know for sure if you're completely tamed like the others. If you're not, you could be harboring the potential as a danger to the children. Since you didn't become intelligent in the same way as the others, I can't take that risk," Neweyes replied solemnly.

"Then why not just give me some sort of antidote and release me back into the wild?" Cleo asked, disheartened with an equally solemn tone as Neweyes's had been. She expressively hunched her body, drooping her head and tail to her mood, and turning her head away to one side. "Why keep me at all?"

Captain Neweyes hesitated, as if he was reminded of something, something he didn't want to remember.

"Because I do not have an antidote for the effects of my Brain Grain, Cleo. I believe everyone deserves the chance for intelligence. Taking it away would be cruel," he answered, before finally turning to look up at her. "Besides, despite the possibility that you may have a violent spark in you still, I'm not giving up on you just yet. I just need to keep an eye on your behavior to see if you need special training," he added, but with a slightly more encouraging tone. Cleo looked at him from the corner of one eye, and gave a small smile in response.

Suddenly, Cleo heard a small sound. It was an aggressive growling roar, and it sounded like it was coming from the bottom deck. Cleo analyzed the sound only for a moment.

"You're inducting a predator for the mission?" she asked Neweyes with complete interest, standing back up from her drooping stance.

"Yep. A _Tyrannosaurus Rex_."

"Why a _T. Rex_?"

"He was a popular request, and I couldn't refuse. Bringing along a Tyrannosaurus would fulfill a lot of children's dreams and wishes," Neweyes replied.

_Is that another reason why I'm not joining the mission to fulfill children's dreams of meeting real live dinosaurs? Because my kind was not wished for?_, Cleo sadly thought.

000000000000000000

For a couple hours afterwards, the top deck was enveloped in silence. Cleo was at the front part of the room, looking out the large window at the night sky outside, finished with the hot dogs Vorb had brought up for her while he was serving food; Cleo believed this meant the other dinosaurs on the ship were having the same thing. Neweyes was behind her, watering his large-leafed plants. Vorb was floating among the plants where the water sprinkled down while humming contentedly. Neweyes put down the watering can to check a leaf with his hands.

A _ding_ sound broke the silence. Cleo turned to face towards the other end of the ship. The elevator lift had just come up, and on it were four dinosaurs. One was a green, buck-toothed male dinosaur Cleo knew of the plant-eating type, possibly a Parasaurolophus. Another was a blue male Triceratops. Perched on his crest was a purple female flying dinosaur (pterosaur) with bat-like wings and a long skinny tail that ended in an arrowhead shape, perhaps a Pterodactylus. The most noticeable of the four, however, was the orange male Tyrannosaurus. Cleo found herself wondering if he was all ready becoming the unofficial leader of their group. She saw that they were glancing over at her with expressions of surprise and wonder.

"Greetings, friends, and welcome to my ship," Neweyes addressed the group of four, stepping away from his plants, and pouring more hot liquid into his mug. "I'm Captain Neweyes."

Neweyes picked up his mug and started walking toward the group of four.

"I live in the far future, where all the species and all the planets have had to learn how to get along, eh, Vorb?," he continued, then glanced over at Vorb, who had picked up the end of the Tyrannosaurus's tail. Vorb dropped the tail when he realized he was being addressed.

"That's the truth, skipper," he replied.

"I made a fortune with my Brain Grain cereal," Neweyes went on, turning his back as the four started stepping off the lift and over towards where he was standing. Cleo decided to go stand beside them, standing on the left side of the Tyrannosaurus. "And now in my golden years, I've been trying to give something back. I'm trying to make a few wishes come true," Neweyes explained while stirring his drink again.

"And with that in, I invented this," he added, pointing his spoon toward the circular curtains. The curtains opened in a split fashion, the ends automatically rolling backwards circularly, revealing a little circular table with a small circular mechanical device sitting on top of it. The device had a knob in the middle near the bottom, and three lit panels arching over the knob. Neweyes put the spoon back into his mug.

"It's a wish radio," he told the dinosaurs, while gesturing to it in a displaying manner with his newly freed hand. He then made a gesture to tell them to hold their responses and wait for him to continue. He then walked over to the device and placed his free hand on it, looking at it with a proud look in his eyes.

"With it, I can hear what people are wishing for, especially young people because they wish the loudest," he explained while walking around in front of it. "Now, let me tune into this one station in the middle future," he said, while turning the little knob back and forth a few times before releasing it where the middle panel was glowing brighter than the other two panels.

Instantly, large bubbles began emerging seemingly from behind the radio, and there were sounds of laughter, laughter from children. The bubbles quickly began to spread throughout the room, and Cleo could see that in each one was an image of a child, and they were making a wish. Their wishes filled the room.

Cleo couldn't help but overhear one bubble floating by the Tyrannosaurus: "I wish I could see…a Tyrannosaurus Rex," the boy in the bubble stated, the "Rex" part echoing.

"Rex? Why, Captain, that's me!" the Tyrannosaurus exclaimed excitedly. "Th-that's me," he repeated, only more in a humble yet flattered tone.

_So his name is Rex, huh?_ Cleo thought curiously.

"I wish I could see one of those flying dinosaurs," another bubble said. This one was by the Pterodactylus, and the boy inside it waved his arms out and spun like a propeller, almost in a pretend airplane gesture as he made his wish.

"Why, that's me. I fly," the Pterodactylus said happily as she let the bubble float into her right wing, as another bubble floated into her left wing.

"I wish I could see…an Apatosaurus," said shyly yet another bubble, this one floating and hovering by the Parasaurolophus.

"Gol-ly. This is great," the dinosaur said, smiling as another bubble came up to hover by his face.

"I wish I could see a Triceratops," Cleo heard a bubble say, but she couldn't find where it came from.

"I wish I could see dinosaurs, dinosaurs!" exclaimed a bubble with a girl wearing trousers and a striped shirt. Cleo followed this one with her eyes, and just beyond it she could see the Triceratops being lifted off the floor by dozens of bubbles.

"Son of a gun-o-saur," he chuckled. "That's us!" He then began using the support from the bubbles to swim in the air.

"That's right, that's you," Neweyes replied. Cleo looked back over at Neweyes. A big bubble had just come out from the radio, and he caught it in his hands. Inside the bubble were two girls taking turns hugging a large plush doll that resembled Rex down to the orange color.

'There are a lot of children down there in this one particular time that miss you, and they're wishing for you. I've never heard a louder wish. So I gave you a little Brain Grain," he explained, then turning to Rex, holding up the big bubble so Rex could see it. "Now you're smart enough to make up your own minds."

"Who's that?" Rex asked softly and curiously. Neweyes looked at the bubble.

"They're young people, boys and girls," he replied before looking back up at Rex. "They wanna meet you. What do you say?"

Rex paused his answer, and Cleo saw that another bubble had grabbed his attention. Rex caught it gently in his hands. Taking a few steps forward to get a better look, Cleo could see it was a boy with black hair with a red cap and a thick faded black jacket. He was sitting on the floor, looking bored while playing with a model raft on wheels.

"Gee. I wish I had a friend," the boy said, the word "friend" echoing a few times just before the bubble popped. Rex hesitated, looking in deep decisive thought for a couple moments.

"We'll do it!" he proclaimed excitedly.

"Why not? I'd love to," Cleo heard the Parasaurolophus say.

"By all means," the Pterodactylus cooed with a strong tone of admiration in her voice.

Cleo watched another bubble float by her. This one had a little girl with light brown hair, and wearing light purple trousers with a shirt underneath of a soft shade of pink. She was looking longingly from what appeared to be a large window, and on the other side of a glass was a yellow hat on display. The hat was semi-flat in all around design, with a large brim, and a blue ribbon around the crown.

"I wish I had a…a Thanksgiving hat," the girl in the bubble said, smiling in at the hat.


	3. Plunging into the Future

The ship rose from the ground, and started ascending into the sky. Cleo watched through a window, and saw that the ship rose past the clouds, and pretty soon, she could see the entire land mass they were on, and the other continents floating on a mass of blue color. The ship soon stopped quite a distance away from the planet, enough that the full planet was in view, along with the sun peeking behind it.

Cleo heard a switching sound behind her. She glanced around, and saw that Vorb had pulled down a lever she had never known about before, and it was now on a setting that read "MIDDLE FUTURE." She turned her head back to the window in time to see something quite unexpected. The planet started spinning at an astounding rate, and the sun was zipping back and forth in diagonals behind it at the same speed. A moment later, the planet and sun started slowing down, until both had paused, with the sun peering its light onto the western edge.

Cleo heard Vorb sigh with admiration beside her. She wondered how long he'd been there, but before she could think on it, a gadget on his wrist began vibrating and ringing wildly. He cleared his throat.

"Ahem, excuse me!" he called, and to Neweyes, Cleo assumed. "Captain Neweyes, sir, we've arrived!" Vorb continued. He then did a strange tune of whistling, almost in a pep rally attitude.

"Thank you, Vorb," Neweyes replied. Cleo noticed Neweyes was holding a bubble in his hands, which he released upwards as he said, "Now open the pod bay doors."

Just then, Cleo heard something opening, and glanced over towards the front of the ship. She saw the other dinosaurs were all ready over there, walking toward a hole in the floor, where doors had just opened. Cleo was curious now, and walked hastily over to where the others were standing in awe. She looked down the hole, and saw many structures making scattered small lights in the vast darkness covering them. She supposed it was late night or early morning for those living down there.

"It's a world covered with jewels," the Pterodactylus almost whispered in her awe.

"Yeah," the green Parasaurolophus agreed enthusiastically.

"Look at all those lights," Rex observed in an almost whisper as well, in a tone of wonder.

They all stared down at the…city below for a couple moments more until doors closed the hole once again. Cleo still amazed herself with her recent explosion of vocabulary, and she smiled at herself at this thought. She heard Neweyes scurry about behind them. Glancing around, she saw him dim the lights within the ship down to almost complete darkness. She noticed one of his hands was clenched into a fist. She saw him then pick up a small gadget that looked like a style of lantern. Suddenly sensing presence around her, she peered at her sides, and saw the other dinosaurs had come up to stand next to her, with their attentions all toward Neweyes.

"Now there's two people down there you should know about," Neweyes began, and waved his fisted hand behind him, and a large cloud of smoke or the like appeared behind him. Instantly after releasing it, he repositioned his grip on the lantern-like gadget, and at the same time, turning it on somehow. It cast a light onto the cloud, and on the cloud appeared the image of a small old human lady with white hair and big glasses. She was standing on a small step, and she appeared to be painting a sign using a canvas. So far there was one word on the sign, "WELCOME," and it took up the entire top half of the sign.

'One person is there to help you. Her name is Doctor Julia Bleeb," Neweyes continued.

"I like her face, it's so full of character," Cleo heard the Pterodactylus say, again with strong admiration in her voice.

"Welcome, welcome!" the Dr. Bleeb projection said.

"She knows you're coming. She needs you to fulfill the wishes of many children," Neweyes explained. The projection all of a sudden disappeared. "Her address is, the Museum of Natural History," Neweyes told them, giving a wink at the end.

"The Museum of Natural History," Rex repeated. Cleo looked at Rex, and saw that he had his eyes closed, and she figured he was scribing the information into his memory. Rex then reopened his eyes, and copied the wink right back at Neweyes.

Neweyes then twisted the lens on the lantern-like projector as he continued.

"Now, the other person you should know about is my brother, Professor Screweyes,"

He raised the projector once more. The projection that came out of it showed a man that looked a lot like Neweyes, but was wearing mostly black, and was crying out maniacally with crows flying around him.

'He's cruel, and he's insane," Neweyes started, as the projection continued moving. The Screweyes projection turned his face forward, as if he was looking at them now. Cleo couldn't help but instantly notice that in the socket of his left eye was the head of a large screw. The dent in the head was positioned vertically, making that eye appear to have an evil pupil. Screweyes's face itself was in a dark, mean-looking expression, and his growling mouth showed four teeth, two on the top and two on the bottom. His face grew larger to fill the cloud until the cloud broke and disappeared as Neweyes went on.

'He travels around down in this time causing mischief," Neweyes told them as he started walking toward the other end of the ship, looking bummed at recalling the thought of his evil brother. "He was driven mad by the loss of his eye long ago. My advice to you is, find Doctor Bleeb and stay well clear of my dark and unhappy brother."

'Beyond that," Neweyes added, changing his tone to a more positive one, putting his hand to his mustache thoughtfully, and taking a few steps back towards them. "Just try not to step on anybody," he pointed out with slight playfulness.

_It must be time for them to go onto the mission_, Cleo thought. _I wonder if I should try to go with them, and prove to the Captain that I am tame enough for children_. Before she could make another thought, she saw Vorb quickly strap packs onto all the other four, except the Pterodactylus.

"All right, you got their boat ready, Vorb?" Neweyes inquired in a commanding voice.

_It's now or never, Cleo_, Cleo thought decisively as she let her own thoughts and resolve tune out the rest of what was said. She slunk herself from Neweyes, knowing he's too preoccupied with seeing the other four dinosaurs off to notice. She looked around, and saw a storage room nearby with its door still slightly open. She snuck her way as stealthily and hastily as she could towards it, figuring that's where Vorb had been. She was right. Inside, she saw more of the packs Vorb had put on the four. Just then heard a simultaneous scream. She quickly glanced over, and saw that the hole had reopened, but the other four had disappeared. She did see two claws grasping the rim of the hole, though.

_Don't tell me they were…_ Cleo thought, but found herself unable to finish the thought, afraid that she was right.

"You've gotta be kidding!" she heard Rex call out.

Cleo knew she was running out of time. Taking out one, and briefly figuring out the two straps on the pack, she dipped her head down, letting the pack go behind her neck as she simultaneously slipped each of her arms through the straps. She then saw Vorb fly towards the hole, holding a small crowbar, big enough for him to be able to use.

_Oh no…_ she thought.

Vorb landed next to the now one claw gripping onto the ship, placed one end of the crowbar underneath it, and in a second, the claw disappeared, and more screams followed, and which began to fade.

Cleo was shocked. The other dinosaurs were now falling who knows how great a distance from the ship to the world below. She began to realize that she would have to make the same plunge.

_The Captain wouldn't let them die from the impact they would have, though_, Cleo thought. _I wonder if these packs will somehow save them, and me, from that?_

She darted for the hole as soon as Vorb turned his back from it. She slunk around his vision, and to the hole. She made a quick glance down the hole. The distance down was vast indeed. She gulped, closing her eyes, and leaped down the hole, immediately hearing after doing so a sound of doors closing.


	4. Sky, Sea, and Land

Cleo immediately found herself plunging toward the world below as if she were a large boulder, and she became afraid of smashing into a million pebbles upon impact. Thinking fast, she remembered the pack on her back.

_Neweyes wouldn't let the chosen dinosaurs fall without something to break their fall so they wouldn't die on impact; that would totally destroy the whole purpose of their mission_, she thought. Then she looked down for the others. She saw that three round puffy cloths had appeared where the dinosaurs should have been. One cloth was orange, another green, and the other blue. Cleo found herself instantly, and again, randomly, knowing what the cloths were.

_Parachutes! It can only be the Brain Grain telling me that, but these packs are parachutes! I knew there had to have been an importance to these packs!_

She glanced at either side of her pack as she could see, and on the left-hand strap, she could see a little handle that looked important. Without thinking, Cleo instantly reached a claw up to it, and pulled the handle, finding as she was doing so that it was attached to the pack by a thin yet strong cord.

She felt something happen inside the pack, and after a second, the pack felt a little lighter as the parachute was released from the pack. Cleo instantly felt it jerk her upwards as it filled with air in an instant, and she found herself grabbing onto the cords of the parachute out of reflex. She looked up at the parachute, and noticed the yellow color to it.

She looked downwards to see how far the others were, and found herself even higher from them than she had been. She could see their parachutes as small colored spots against the dark blue color below them. It was then she noticed that the sky had been brightening up; the sun was rising. She looked around upon the world below. Off to one side, was a vast city of buildings of various sizes. Directly below her was water, on which she could barely see a tiny brown and white object, but it was too far away yet to make out. She watched as the other dinosaurs landed at that spot, seemingly right on top of the brown and white object. She could barely make out their splashes, and the fading colors of the three parachutes, which were probably slipping off as the three non-flying dinosaurs fell into the water. All Cleo could do was watch as she continued her slow descent.

She saw the tiny dots of their heads amongst the water, and they seemed to be on a separate oval-shaped color around them, a dark grayish blue. Cleo remembered Neweyes mentioning a boat just before he had them dropped from the ship. The dinosaurs didn't seem to be going anywhere in the boat, but she did notice them gradually manage to stand in the boat.

_Maybe I can catch up to them before they find a way to motorize the boat toward land_, she thought with some hope, but a new thought came to her. _But what am I going to say? Surely they'll suspect my reasons for being here when I wasn't dropped with them._

Now a little closer, and almost to the water, Cleo was feeling ready to be out of the air, but still not entirely ready for the conversation she knew would come. Just then, she noticed the others' boat begin to move, and at a fair pace toward the city. She also noticed a tiny black dot amongst them, but she decided not to think anything of it for now.

Cleo finally made contact with the water, landing in it with a big splash. While she was almost completely submerged from the landing, she felt the straps of the parachute pack slide up her arms, just as she was beginning to feel the parachute tug against her as it sank into the water. Cleo was somewhat relieved for the pack coming off, thus saving her from drowning, but she found herself with a different problem- she had no boat or anything of the sort to transport herself with. Then she heard a pattern of swooshing noises in the water. She found that her feet were paddling in the water, appearing like they were running without going anywhere, and the toes appearing like they were trying to grab something in the water; her feet were keeping her afloat.

_I guess I'm a natural swimmer_, Cleo thought to herself, smiling. She looked over towards where the others were. They were pretty far by now, getting all the more close to the city, and for that matter, land. They were little more than a slur of four colored spots now.

_I suppose I better get moving before I completely lose them_, she sighed in thought. She looked to the water for an idea, and noticed a small school of fish swim by close to the surface. Watching how they weaved themselves from side to side with their tails to move themselves forward gave Cleo both an idea, and a faint, strange sense of familiarity that she couldn't identify.

She leaned herself forward and let herself sink mostly into the water, so that only her head, neck, and sail were visible on the surface. She stretched her legs behind her, and tucked her arms close to her. She started paddling with her feet like before, as if she were trying to run, to get herself a start in movement. She dunked her head forward and to one side for a bit of thrust forward, while gliding the rear half of her body to the opposite side. She weaved herself so that her head and rear half whipped to the opposite sides from where they were. She repeated this movement until she fell into its pattern. Once she had the pattern down, she found herself moving forward with ease, and she stopped paddling with her feet, letting them stretch out behind her once again, and they were gliding from side to side along with her tail. Doing this, she discovered the weaving of her rear half, including her tail and legs, was creating a force that was propelling her forward. Knowing that she had this swimming motion down, she allowed her head to stay on top of the surface so she could breathe while she continued to weave herself from side to side.

After swimming for quite a while, Cleo finally reached the edge of the city. She noticed a pier extending out, and swam to it. She came out of her horizontal position, tilting her back end further under the water, while raising her front end, and using her feet to keep her afloat like before. She reached her arms up and grabbed onto the end of the pier, then lifting herself up, finishing her climb by reaching one of her knees up onto the pier and pushing herself the rest of the way up.

Standing herself back up, she took in her surroundings. In front of her were four machines; what they did, she wasn't sure. One of them grabbed her particular interest, however. It was the machine on the far left. It had a box-like enclosing where Cleo assumed humans ran the machine. It stood on the ground on elliptical metal treads on either side of it. The machine featured a long extension reaching up, and at its end was a large scoop-like bucket with teeth-looking prongs. Cleo noticed that water was dripping from the bucket; it was very recently in the water, but Cleo couldn't begin to guess the reason.

The next thing she noticed was the city behind the machines. Two extremely tall buildings almost immediately caught her attention. She followed their height with her eyes; they seemed to reach all the way up to the clouds. She found herself craning her head up to a point where her neck was completely vertical. She suddenly felt a jerk backwards; she was starting to lose her balance. She quickly leaned back forward to prevent falling backwards into the water.

_Note to self. A dinosaur shouldn't crane themselves back on the edge of a pier, to look at a skyscraper. If they fall into the water, and they couldn't swim…I don't know how they'd make it out._

Suddenly remembering the other dinosaurs, she quickly turned her focus in front of her. She could just barely make out small orange, green, and blue dots entering the city. She rushed after them, determined not to lose them. From the airship, the city looked like it stretched along a vast distance, miles and miles of buildings, and with buildings this tall, she knew it would be all too easy for even a dinosaur to get lost. She hoped they would have more idea of where the museum was than she did, but she didn't want to be completely alone in such a huge city. If she wasn't in such a rush, she would have stopped to investigate the faint sound she heard as she began running- a small familiar woman's voice back at the pier, calling out, "Welcome to New York City!"


	5. New Sights and New Friends

Cleo followed the other dinosaurs into the city, barely keeping sight of them. Soon, they all started to venture into areas of bigger and bigger buildings. She noticed the others' pace gradually slow as they all came into these areas, and as they weaved themselves through the alleys between each building. All around on every street humans bustled around while vehicles crowded the streets in each direction.

After some time, Cleo finally found them stopped in an alley, just out of sight from the street. Cleo notices that just as she finds them, she sees the Pterodactylus rapidly soar into the sky, and Cleo barely catches the sight of something black on the flying dinosaur's back.

"Where's she going?" Cleo can't help herself but ask as she approaches the remaining three.

"They're going to go look for a way to show ourselves to the people without them getting scared of us," the green Parasaurolophus answered without breaking his gaze toward where the flying dinosaur had disappeared. Cleo wondered what he meant by "they," as she thought back to the black splotch.

"Wait a minute…" Rex started, turning his head back to Cleo. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd come along with you guys," Cleo replied, trying to answer honestly, but at the same time, trying to throw them off from suspicion; she still hadn't completely figured out how to explain her presence despite her not being dropped off with the rest of them.

'I don't believe we have all been introduced," she added.

"You're right, we haven't," Rex chuckled. "My name is Rex."

"And my name is Dweeb," the green Parasaurolophus said.

"And my name is Woog," the blue Triceratops said.

"And my name is Cleo," Cleo told them. "Nice to finally meet you guys."

"And the one who just flew away is named Elsa," Rex added, obviously for Cleo's reference, which Cleo was grateful for.

"What exactly are you?" Dweeb asked.

"The Captain said that I'm called a Spinosaurus, but he didn't tell me much else," she replied. "I only wonder if my kind has been discovered yet by this time," she added mostly to herself with a tone of worrying hope.

"By the way, how come you are just now joining us?" Rex asked. Cleo knew she couldn't make up a lie, despite knowing she'll be revealing herself as a stowaway of sorts.

"I'll be honest with you guys," she started, drooping her tail and her head slightly, "I snuck off the ship." They all gasped in surprise.

"You did what?" Woog asked, mostly as a rhetorical question.

"Snuck off?" Dweeb gasped.

"Why did you do that?" Rex asked, as mostly a sincere question.

"The Captain wasn't gonna let me go with you guys; he believes I'm not ready to interact with children yet, but I think I am," she replied, slightly perking up in self-confidence, "Anyways, there's nothing that can be done now that I'm all ready down here. Even if Neweyes noticed me gone before he might have done a time jump or something, he wouldn't have come down in the ship. The humans probably would think it was a spaceship or something."

"Yeah, you're probably right about it being too late, and the human panic thing," Rex said, raising a claw to his mouth in a thinking expression, as if he was picturing the spaceship image in his head, and considering the truth in it.

0000000000000000000000

The minutes rolled by, and Elsa had not returned with her passenger. By now the city was fully lit with daylight. Cleo watched Woog slip out of the alley, and creep along the window of the bakery which was one of the buildings their alley was beside. While he crept along, Woog dragged his tongue longingly across the glass of the window as he peered at the food inside the shop. Dweeb grabbed Woog's tail, trying to drag him back into the shadows of the alley. Dweeb managed to drag Woog back to the corner of the alley, but Woog's superior weight settled, and Dweeb's grip slipped, causing him to fall backwards into a couple trash cans with a crash. A cat that was hiding among the trash cans yelled out in terror as it fled from sight. Cleo found Dweeb's incident kind of amusing. She looked over at Rex, who was peeking out of the alley to look up and down the street.

"I hope they're okay," he said in a soft, worried tone. Cleo saw him take notice of a sight across the street. Cleo looked over his shoulder and saw some human boys in a small single-basket basketball court. A boy made his way through the rest, dribbling the ball, and then he jumped, shooting the ball right at the basket, but the ball hit the backboard, and instantly ricocheted right back at the boy that shot it, hitting him in the face. The boy fell down face-forward.

Cleo cringed for the injured boy, and she looked back at Rex to see his reactions. He seemed to be intrigued by the game, as he was grinning, and was absent-mindedly pretending to dribble a ball with one hand. Just then, there came footsteps from the sidewalk. Cleo looks down, and from the corner of her eye, at the same time as Rex, and saw a man focused on a newspaper he had stretched out between his hands, and he nearly tripped over the very tip of one of Rex's toes.

"Hey, watch where you're goin'!" the man growled as he barely turned his head into the alley, but he walked away as if he didn't acknowledge the sight of dinosaurs in the alley. Cleo saw Rex cower a bit into the shadows as he watched the man continue his way down the sidewalk.

Dweeb suddenly came rushing up from behind, pointing one finger to the sky. Cleo noticed there was a banana peel lying on his snout.

"Hey, look! There they are!" Dweeb cried out happily. Cleo looked up to where he was pointing. Sure enough, Elsa was returning, and she was starting to position her legs out for a landing. Cleo noticed there were two figures on Elsa's back.

"Oo, they've got a little girl with them," Rex observed out loud anxiously as Elsa landed on Woog's back. A boy wearing a red shirt, a black jacket, a red baseball cap, and blue jeans climbs off Elsa the second she lands, and he helps a girl climb off Elsa. The girl had orange hair with a greenish blue ribbon in it, and she was wearing a white dress with greenish blue trimmings and a greenish blue loose-hanging tie-like bow at the collar.

"Everybody, I'd like you to meet my new friend, Cecilia Nuthatch," the boy called out as he helped the girl off Elsa. Cleo then noticed the boy notice her.

"Who are you? _What_ are you?" the boy asked her, with surprise and perhaps a tiny twinge of intimidation in his eyes.

"My name is Cleo, and I've been told that I'm a Spinosaurus," Cleo told him, waving one arm in front of her chest, and slighting nodding her head forward in a slight bow. There was something about this boy's appearance that was familiar…

"And who are you?" she asked him.

"The name's Louie," he replied. "I assume you all ready know these guys," he added, while pointing a thumb backwards over his shoulder, gesturing to the other four dinosaurs.

"You could say that," Cleo replied. She then saw Louie give an expression of sudden remembrance of something.

"Anyway, everybody," Louie said, while turning back to the girl, "meet Cecilia Nuthatch."

"The name's Rex," Rex told Cecilia as he held out an overturned hand to her. "Nice to meet you."

"Pleasure, Rex," Cecilia replied while giving a well-mannered curtsy. "Very nice to meet you."

"And I'm Dweeb, hi!" Dweeb called to her as he leaned over Rex's shoulders, still dirty from his fall into the trash cans; Cleo noticed the banana peel was no longer on his snout, and she figured it must have fallen off. Rex brushed his shoulder with one hand.

"Pleasure, Dweeb," Cecilia replied, giving him a curtsy as well. "Very nice to meet you."

"She's so well brought up," Elsa commented admiringly.

"All right, break it up!" Louie shouted, not too far off from a movie director, "Enough with the pleasantries."

Cleo watched as Woog lowered Cecilia down to the ground with his tail, which she happened to be standing on at the time.

"These are all dinosaurs," Cecilia whispered to herself observingly. Just then, Woog started to chuckle heartily.

"I'm hungry!" he called out, but then turning to Cecilia said, "I mean, I'm Woog." With that, he gave another hearty chuckle. It was then that Cleo noticed that Louie was trying to climb down Woog's face, hanging on to Woog's crest for support, and she wondered what he was doing.

"I'm Cecilia Nuthatch," Cecilia replied, and began to give another curtsy. "I'm very pleased to meet you, Woog. Have you been a dinosaur long?" she asked him while bending back up from her curtsy.

"Enough with this tea party chatter," Louie demanded. Now he was positioned with one foot on Woog's nose horn, with the other foot on Woog's forehead, and one hand grasping one of Woog's temple horns. Cleo watched Louie try to jump to the ground from his current position, but his jacket was caught on Woog's nose horn.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" Louie yelled as Woog carried him closer to Cecilia. "What are you, some kind of debutant?" Louie started to ask Cecilia, but Cleo noticed his tone get suddenly soft on the last syllable when he gazed upon Cecilia. At this time, Woog set Louie on the ground.

"Why, yes, as a matter of fact, I am," Cecilia replied to Louie. Cleo noticed a certain tone to her voice, as if Cecilia was expressing some sort of crush on Louie more than answering the question. Louie took off his hat, holding it by his chest in a gentlemanly fashion as he stared into Cecilia's eyes.

"Oh…" he replied off-handedly in a soft voice, as if he too were suddenly lost in a moment of a newfound crush on Cecilia.

Cleo then saw Rex bend down to put his hands on Louie's shoulders, and lean his head beside Louie's. Louie broke out of his zone with Cecilia as he noticed Rex, and turned to face Rex. Rex then made a teasing purring noise at Louie.

"Re-ex!" Louie said in response, obviously knowing just what Rex was teasing him about, and he waved Rex off with his hat. With that, Rex leaned back up with a satisfied expression on his face. Louie showed once more an expression of remembering something.

"Listen!" Louie began while putting his hat back on, but then started to sprint out onto the street as he continued, "I figured out a way for you guys to stroll uptown and not cause a riot." He pulled himself onto the hood of a car parked on the opposite side of the street, hopped with one leg to the trunk of the car in front of it, then ricocheting himself onto the opposite sidewalk.

"Come on!" he ushered them excitedly, chuckling as he jogged up the sidewalk.


	6. The Rock Rolling Parade

Countless people crowded the sidewalks along the street for seemingly miles, and there were countless more in the parade, wearing outfits, costumes, and uniforms of all colors and sorts, each group in their own place in the parade. In addition to groups, there were moving platforms which the humans called "floats," and also groups of people holding down giant balloons in the form of various pop culture icons.

Louie had shown the dinosaurs a castle-like float he and Elsa had spotted on their outing. Dweeb and Woog had been hitched to the castle, pulling it along, with Elsa perched on Woog's back. Rex and Cleo were unhitched, placed in front of the others. Meanwhile, Louie and Cecilia would be in the booth in the castle. The group plan was to disguise the dinosaurs as robots in the parade. This way, they could move through the city without panic.

After the parade became under way, Cleo noticed that the float in front of them was a volcano surrounded by jungle trees. She looked behind them, and noticed a large balloon in the form of a smiling, gray long-necked dinosaur. She decided to put these observations away for now, as it was their turn to move along with the parade.

People gasped in surprise as the dinosaurs walked by in robotic fashion. Cleo noticed many children rush to the front of the crowd of spectators on the sidewalks. Some even asked a parent to lift them up higher to get a better view.

"Holy smokes, they're big!" a boy exclaimed in wonder.

"Dinosaurs!" a little girl exclaimed, hopping up and down excitedly. She was a little bit familiar, with her light brown hair topped with a yellow hat with a blue ribbon.

"No, Sasha, they're not dinosaurs. They're robots," the woman with her, presumably her mother, told her. The girl stopped hopping, with a sudden expression of disappointment on her face.

"I wish they were real dinosaurs," she mumbled.

Cleo noticed from the corner of her eye that Rex was starting to lose his form, and a grin was starting to appear on his face, which only grew as they continued on, and more children expressed their wishes that the dinosaurs were real.

"Yeah, wouldn't it be great if they were real?" another boy asked to seemingly no one.

Cleo noticed that Rex had paused at this, and had a face that suggested that he might have forgotten that he was supposed to be acting like a robot.

_I don't know what he's thinking, but I hope he's not gonna do anything that would jeopardize our plan_, she thought. Just then, Rex made a thoughtful sound, like a "oooh," and then he thrust his mouth open in brief laughter. He began to dance, and sing:

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_

_When the earth was smokin', and the lava flowed_

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_

_And blow your cool just like a volcano_

_Snap your fingers, and stomp your feet! _(upon this last part, Rex hopped three times, quaking the ground a bit each time he landed)

_Soakin' up a little of the jungle beat_

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_

_And sing this song with me_

Cleo noticed now that Rex was starting to dance further forward out of position, toward the volcano float. He turned to face one sidewalk, and hopped up in a rallying fashion, and it worked; the crowds of youth hopped up with him, each of them rotating their fists around each other along with Rex as he continued his singing.

_Woah, roll back the rock!_

_**Roll back the rock!**_, the crowd of youth sang back

_Turn back the clock!_

_**Turn back the clock!**_

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_

_And sing this song with me_

Cleo and the other dinosaurs marched on, their robotic movements forgotten in their shock at Rex's making a scene of himself. Cleo leaned her head down to place a hand over her eyes in an embarrassed expression over Rex's action. She then heard laughter from the castle booth; it was Cecilia. She heard Cecilia squeal joyfully with a "Whee!", then half-scream, half-woot.

_I guess Cecilia's getting into it, too_, Cleo thought. She straightened back up, just in time for a cue that Rex's song wasn't over.

_Turn back the clock, maybe you can see_

_Why the twentieth century appeals to me_

_So much to learn, and so much to do_

_And a zillion wonderful things to chew!_

_Roll back the rock!_

_**Roll back the rock!**_, the crowd again sang back

_Turn back the clock!_

_**Turn back the clock!**_

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_

_And sing this song with me!_

Cleo heard chatter coming from the castle booth. She didn't catch what was said at first, but she heard Cecilia's voice:

"And I like you, too," she was saying in a shy, flirtatious tone.

"Hey, shut up with that," Louie replied in a sort of repelled voice, "What are you, sappy?" Cleo didn't hear an answer, for she heard Rex go on. She noticed Rex had danced all the way to the volcano float, and was dancing in the trees. He bounced himself up to the peak of the volcano. He looked inside it at the same time it trembled, and some confetti exploded out on top of his head. Rex gave out a jungle cry as he slid down the volcano, and rebounded off the trees as they somehow launched him into the air. He landed on the giant balloon in front of the volcano. The balloon was definitely human in shape, but it seemed to be wearing some sort of red and blue costume. Rex had landed right onto the rump of the balloon human.

_If you're thinkin' this guy's unreal_, Rex continued, and then climbing up to stand and dance on the balloon human's back.

_Just imagine how I must feel!_

_Just imagine how I must feel_, he repeated, but in a beginning tone as he seemed to have something in his hands, which he was playing with. Cleo couldn't tell from the distance between him and the rest of them just what it was, but she did notice a whole linear cloud of small balloons float by Rex.

_Human beings, mmm, what a meal_

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_

_And sing this song with me_

Rex seemed to then notice something while he was facing back to the rear part of the parade. He hopped back down off the balloon human, landing on the trees of the volcano float, then instantly rushing back towards the group. Cleo noticed the look on his face, and it told her that he wasn't aiming for them, but something behind them.

"What do you know?" he was saying excitedly as he sprinted right past the castle float. Cleo looked behind them, and saw him go straight for the long-neck dinosaur balloon. She saw him stop right before it, and he seemed to talk to it for a moment before reaching out and shaking one of its feet. Cleo noticed that as he walked away, the balloon's foot thrashed wildly and somewhat limply, as it started to raise higher into the air, dragging the humans off the ground that were holding its ropes.

Cleo looked back at Rex, and he was in front of what seemed to be a movie theater, currently featuring a movie titled "Jurassic Park," and he made a motion cueing another rally hop, which the children followed once more as they released all the balloons they were holding.

_Whoa, roll back the rock!_

_**Roll back the rock!**_

_Turn back the clock!_

_**Turn back the clock!**_

_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time_, he started, while hopping backwards onto his tail, using his tail to prop him up for a moment, but then bouncing his tail to prop himself back onto his feet as he concluded the song:

_And sing this song with meeeee_, he sang while kneeling in a finale-type pose in front of the girl named Sasha and her mother.

Cleo and the others caught up to him at last in this moment. However, she then heard a strange sound coming from up above, and she noticed a shadow cast over them all. She looked up to see the long-neck dinosaur balloon. It was now thrashing completely, falling quickly towards them. In a moment, the balloon fell upon all five dinosaurs, cloaking them as it lost every last bit of air it had left in it. In a matter of seconds, Cleo's vision was obstructed by the darkness left underneath the balloon as it settled to the ground like a huge blanket.


	7. Splitting and Rejoining Paths

Cleo shrugged the balloon tarp backwards from off her head, feeling the others doing the same. She lifted her arms up to slip the tarp the rest of the way backwards to let it rest over her sail. The crowd was now silent, all staring at them.

"Way to go, Rex," she mumbled bitterly to Rex, "You've ruined the plan, and have exposed us all."

Rex looked like he was about to reply, but then he appeared to notice something. Cleo followed his gaze and saw the girl named Sasha approaching them, eagerly dragging her mother behind her with one hand. Rex smiled down at her, then leaned down to meet her in the face as she broke from her mother.

"Hi," he softly said to her, while wiggling his finger claws of one hand in a sort of greeting hand wave.

"Look, mommy," Sasha began, peering up at Rex, "those are real dinosaurs!"

Cleo looked back at the mother for her reaction. Unfortunately, the mother cringed into her brown fur coat with a fearful look in her eyes. Cleo saw that she gasped, but she also heard other adults in the crowd do the same.

"They're real! They're real!" she heard another child exclaim joyfully.

"They're not robots, they're alive!" yet another child said. Cleo noticed a few parents snatch up their children, including Sasha's mother, who then took a hold of Sasha's hand again protectively, almost in a preparatory gesture for a next move.

"Run! Real dinosaurs!" a man shouted fearfully as he began running back up the street. In the instant that followed, every adult began shouting and screaming as they ran away from the dinosaurs in mass panic. Cleo once again placed a hand over her eyes in shame and embarrassment that a bad situation had happened when it could have been avoided.

"Louie!" came Cecilia's voice from the castle float. Cleo looked up and noticed Louie had come out of the castle booth and was trying to shove his way back to the dinosaurs. However, the panicking crowd kept pushing him backwards despite his efforts.

"Split up! We'll meet you guys at the circus in Central Park! Better run!" he shouted to them just before he disappeared into the crowd.

"Central Park…?" Rex repeated in a tone of puzzlement. Then he looked over to one building, asking out loud, "But where is Central Park?"

Rex seemed to spot something on the building he was looking at, and he started to walk towards it. Cleo noticed the others follow right behind him, and she decided to do the same. A small group of leftover pedestrians by the building screamed at their approach and fled with all haste. On the building was a large poster with a black background and yellow-green writing. Cleo made special note of the figure on the poster: a familiar-looking old human man with white hair behind his ears, and wearing a black coat. He was giving a wicked smile, which wasn't helped by the fact that his left eye seemed to be a screw. Rex leaned down to look at the poster, and began to read it.

"_Professor Screweyes'..Eccentric Circus_- Professor Screweyes?" he exclaimed in recognition and alarm, "That's the bad guy!" he reminded the rest of them, briefly turning his head to them as he addressed them. He turned back to the poster, and finished reading the writing on it.

"_Now appearing in…Central Park..._" he said, his tone filled with acknowledgement of the connection between certain situations. "Louie, Cecilia, they're in danger! We've gotta save them!" he cried out, charisma filling his voice.

"You there!" a voice came from seemingly nowhere. Cleo looked around and saw a big group of humans dressed in blue and black swarming around about thirteen blue and white cars with flashing lights on top of them. In the air were two bluish machines hovering with propellers on top of them which were rotating rapidly in circles about as big as the machines themselves.

'Don't move!" the voice came again. Cleo finally spotted the source of the voice. It was one of the men around the cars. He was speaking while holding up a megaphone close to his mouth.

'You're under arrest! Put your paws up!" the man demanded.

There was a pause as Cleo noticed from the corner of one eye that the other four all looked at each other, silently agreeing on the next move they should all take. They all screamed together, then took off in different directions. Rex darted further up the street, in the direction the parade was originally headed. Dweeb darted the other way, and leaped over the blockade of cars. Woog followed right behind him, lowering his head down as he approached the cars. Cleo looked away, but not before barely noticing Elsa fly in the same direction as Dweeb and Woog. Cleo quickly looked straight ahead, and saw an alley between buildings behind the blockade of cars. She noticed men starting to approach her with black sticks. Her instincts told her these men did not mean well for perceived threats to their society. Without giving it another thought, she charged forward, and was surprised to see the men leap out of the way. Was she really that dangerous-looking? She leaped over the blockade of cars with ease, and darted into the alley.

0000000000000000

Cleo weaved through alleys in a constant pace, for the purpose of throwing off any humans that might have been trying to follow her; she was too determined to lose them that she didn't look back. Once in a while, when she had to cross a street, she would see one of the other dinosaurs pass by. She had once seen Woog driving a motorcycle, which was almost completely crushed to the ground under his weight, and Dweeb in the side-car to the motorcycle. However, later, she once saw Woog alone on the motorcycle. She had wondered what happened to Dweeb in the side-car. In addition to this, she also had seen Rex zipping around in a red truck while standing in the back of it. She had wondered why the others had gone to such lengths in order to outrun the humans hunting them; riding around on cars didn't seem to her like a fitting thing for a dinosaur to do. She had been comforted, however, by the sight of Elsa flying around, though Elsa had one of those flying machines chasing her.

"_What are those called?_" Cleo had wondered, straining her brain for the vocabulary term to come to her like most words she's learned since eating the Brain Grain hot dogs. She continued weaving her way through alleys as she pondered for the word, as she had nothing else to do while she wondered through the cities using the safety of the alleys.

00000

When the sun was past its midday point, the word finally came to her: _helicopter_. She found herself wondering why it had been so important to learn the word, but unable to think of a reason, she cast it aside. Her thoughts wondered back to when she fled the blockade. She found it curious that her instincts became alive in that moment. The instincts she had felt then had a tint of animalistic feeling to them, and she was surprised at the possibility she still had such instincts at all. Perhaps Neweyes knew that she wasn't completely "civilized" like the others? These thoughts loomed over her for a few hours more.

00000

The next thing Cleo knew, the sun was fast approaching the horizon. The sky had begun to lose the daytime levels of light, and was starting to dull and darken. Just then, she heard a loud noise not far away-it sounded like an explosion. She looked upwards, and focused her hearing for more sensory information to tell her more. She heard a low deep-toned voice yelling out, and another higher-pitched voice chuckling- Rex and Dweeb. In an instant, their voices became suddenly louder, and she saw all four dinosaurs fly though the air, with a thin line of orange-tinted smoke behind them. Cleo acknowledged right away that they were all together. Not wanting to be the last one cut off from them, she decided to follow the direction they were heading.

Around dusk, she finally came upon a change in scenery-the point where buildings and asphalt turned into trees and grass. Taking a brief look around, she saw a linear trench in the ground, leading further into the grassy area…the _park_. She followed the trench into the park, knowing the trench was made by the other dinosaurs. She soon came upon them a little ways into the park, next to a tree. When she approached them, she noticed Rex was looking at a small piece of paper he was holding in his hands.

"Professor Screweyes' Eccentric Circus," he read to the rest of them. Then he turned his head back up, and seemed to notice something. Cleo followed his gaze, and made out in the fading sunlight large striped tents some distance away further into the park. Just then, streams of light along the tents came on, twinkling like tiny stars, almost beckoning to any passersby.


	8. The Master of Fear

The circus area looked all the more spooky now that the sun had set. Cleo could somewhat make out the colors of the vertical stripes on the tents all around them, but only due to the unusual lighting colors. Never before had Cleo seen so much green and truly yellow lighting. She and the other dinosaurs ventured into this eerie place to search for their two human children friends.

"Yoo-hoo! Louie! Cecilia!" Elsa and Dweeb called out in unison.

"Where are you?" Rex called out, almost as an extension to the former call.

Cleo noticed they were venturing alongside a line of miniature game stalls, and they were closing in on the biggest tent, what she assumed to be the show tent. She saw three figures come out from the entrance at this side; one tall, and the others short, practically child-size. The group of dinosaurs moved on, and stopped before the figures. Cleo instantly recognized all three figures, and she was sensing a bad vibe from the tallest one, even though he seemed to be struggling with a overwhelming panic at the sight of the dinosaurs.

"It's him, Professor Screweyes," Rex whispered, some alarm in his tone.

"Cecilia, get away from that man!" Dweeb exclaimed warningly.

"Hey, chill out, we just joined his circus," Louie reassured them with a small grin on his face. Cleo was shocked.

"But Professor Screweyes-" Rex began, but didn't finish, "We were warned about him!"

"Warned?" Screweyes's dark crackly voice came as he stood behind the kids, "By whom?"

"Your brother!" Rex stated as-a-matter-of-factly to him. Cleo noticed the defensive bitterness Rex's voice had suddenly taken on. Screweyes left his spot from behind the kids, and started walking towards a pole with a large box on it.

"So that's how you got here, and why you can talk," Screweyes observed out loud as he finished walking to the pole, where he began pushing switches down, causing a few lights to turn off in the circus area. Cleo found that an irritation for Screweyes had seeded inside her, and it was all ready starting to cloud her thoughts. "He fed you that Brain Grain stuff, and he warned you about me, eh? Looking into his own affairs, did he show you that hokey wish radio of his?" he asked while switching down another switch.

"Yes, we heard what people are wishing for," Dweeb spoke up, but Cleo noticed he sounded somewhat nervous.

"Well, I got a radio too," Screweyes began in a strangely creepy voice, then as he switched down yet another switch, "Let me show you."

"Nope, no way, nada! We don't want anything to do with you!" Rex instantly jumped in hastily. "Come on, kids, come to the museum with us," he verbally ushered them, while starting to turn his body towards the way the dinosaurs came. "the Museum of Natural History-"

"They're not going anywhere," Screweyes grumbled while pulling out a rolled up piece of paper from his front, "They're under contract to me for a very long time." With that, he threw off another switch, and this time, most of the surrounding lights shut off, and night time darkness settled in. Cleo heard Rex gulp, and Cecilia started sobbing. Cleo looked down, noticing Rex bending his head down to the level of the children, and Elsa standing by Cecilia, trying to hold her comfortingly with her arms.

"But these are the first children we've met," Elsa protested.

"We like them," Rex added sympathetically.

"Hey, come on," Louie said, trying his best to comfort Cecilia, "everything's gonna be all right."

"Oh, I don't think so," Screweyes began in a low, yet hintingly eerie tone, "unless we can work something out with your friends here." He threw down one last switch, leaving the entire area completely dark.

00000000

He led them all to another tent. Featured inside it was a large dark machine. Though it was surrounded by a see-through magenta veil, and thus, they couldn't see it with complete clarity, Cleo could tell it was likely black in color, with two large green lights that almost resembled evil eyes; two smaller slanted triangular green lights that were positioned almost like a evil grin on the machine's "face;" and yellow plates in the center of the "smile", and towards the bottom. Lights lined the sides of the machine, and puffs of smoke came from its top. Cleo's instincts were bothering her again, which was only reinforced by how they reminded her that she still had such instincts at all. Screweyes was somewhere inside the veil, next to the machine, but he soon reappeared at where the veil's ends meet.

"This is a time of loud wishes, yes, but even louder fears," he told them while clutching the edges of the veil's ends, then letting them go, which allowed a small peek at the machine, for the veil opened a bit from the action of letting the ends go. "This is a fright radio. It picks up what people are scared to death of." Cleo sensed the other four dinosaurs slowly approach the machine, and followed alongside.

'You see, I find out what they're frightened of on this radio, and that's what I try to give them in my circus," Screweyes continued. "It's a public service. But this is the station that comes in loudest of all!" He reached out for a big knob in the center of the "smile," and began to turn it back and forth, then resting it about in the middle.

The machine rumbled, then rays of electricity shot from each side and the top, and green smoke exploded from all around the machine, and an explosion of multi-colored smoke spouted from the top, along with terrified voices and yells. The spout of smoke raced directly for the group, and as it got closer Cleo noticed the smoke was in the form of a legion of children, all with terrified expressions on their faces. Cleo sensed the others back away as the smoke people swarmed at them, but Cleo didn't move, knowing smoke isn't physically harmful. She only briefly looked back at them as they cowered to the tent wall, before turning her head back. She caught one word in the first sweep of smoke children: "monsters."

"Monsters are gonna eat me!" came a scream back from the top of the machine.

"I feel eyes staring at me!" another smoke child cowered. Screweyes cackled darkly, and stepped through a curtain of cascading smoke children.

"Do you see what they're most afraid of?" he asked them.

"N-noo..." Woog mumbled in reply, obviously frightened from the sight.

"Mmmonsters!" Screweyes cried out, raising his arms threateningly to go along with his point. Cleo thought she almost knew where he was getting at, and it only made her irritation grow a bit more.

"Monsters?" Rex's voice came, genuinely questioning the word.

"You!" Screweyes said pointedly.

"Us?" Rex questioned alarmingly.

"Us?" Woog's voice came again, almost as equally alarmed.

"With a little help," Screweyes began, while reaching inside his coat, then whipping out a small container. "yes!" The container held pills inside it, and they were giving off a pulsing green light.

"W-what's that?" Cecilia asked, a bit cautiously.

"It's Brain Drain!" Screweyes replied, and Cleo thought she detected some pride in the way he said it. "The remedy to my brother's goodie-two-shoes breakfast cereal. It'll take ya back. It'll make ya monsters."

"But we don't wanna be monsters," Woog said weakly.

"We're not taking anything. You can forget it," Rex told Screweyes pointedly, charisma in his voice once again, this time speaking for all of them.

"All right, you're free. You can go; I can't stop you," Screweyes replied while tossing the pill container up, then catching it in his hand again. Cleo thought his instant agreement to their decision was perhaps too easy to come; she hoped he didn't have a secret plan to make them agree, but his tone didn't help to convince her otherwise. "But the kids…are mine," he continued.

Cleo saw him walk a few steps closer to Louie and Cecilia, with a strange look in his eye, for he was directing his screw eye at them, as if looking at them through that eye more so than his good eye. The mere sight of the screw eye set Cleo's instincts of alarm and danger go off. Fighting her alarmed senses into subtlety, she backed herself to the other dinosaurs, stopping alongside Woog, who was at one end of the somewhat-line of them.

White crystal-shaped light began to emit from the screw eye, straight into Cecilia's eyes, followed soon by swirling green light, and inside the funnel of green light was swirling magenta light. Cecilia's eyes were fixated into a stare at the screw eye as the swirling green light began to touch her face.

"W-wha-what are you doin'?" Louie asked, concerned about the situation. He put a hand over Cecilia's eyes, apparently hoping to shield her from the hypnosis, "Don't look, Ceci-" he began, but the swirling green and magenta lights and white crystals met his eyes as well as soon as he touched Cecilia, and his sentence was lost.

"I can't…help it," Cecilia told Louie monotonously as his arm dropped back down from her eyes. The lights swirled a moment longer, then shot into the children's eyes.

_Mind control…this guy seems to be some sort of control maniac_, Cleo observed, her irritation growing a bit more at the concept of it, and what it might mean for the children, her, and the rest of the dinosaurs.

"Among my many other rights on this contract," Screweyes began, while taking a pill out of the container, "Including copyrights on all their ideas, I have an exclusive option on their willpower." He split the pill in half, then approached the hypnotized children with half the pill in each of his index fingers and thumbs.

'Now this is just a temporary dose, by way of demonstration," he told the dinosaurs as he fed each of the pill halves to the children.

Instantly, the children began shifting in appearance. Right before their eyes, the children shrank in height while starting to hunch in stature. Hair began to grow on their faces, arms, and hands as their hands grew. Cleo heard a couple gasps from the other dinosaurs, followed by a gasping cry of horror from Woog. In a flash of green and then white, the two children finished their transformation. They were chimpanzees in their human clothes.


	9. Memorable Control

_So those pills revert the taker into the primal form of their species_, Cleo thought, furrowing her eyebrow muscles in focused observation.

"Change them back," Rex snarled, evidently trying to be intimidating, "or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?" Screweyes said, cutting Rex off, "You're too enlightened by my brother's Brain Grain, you've lost your savagery." He then reached into his coat, and pulled out a banana, then began to peel it.

'You've lost your frightening prehistoric power to intimidate," he continued, letting the banana slip from his hand, and down to the chimpanzees, where it was caught by Louie. Louie squeezed the banana, and the inside part of it slipped out, to fly right into Cecilia's mouth. "You're civilized now, and I've got a contract, and you're gonna respect that like the chumps you are."

"Chumps?" Cleo repeated, letting a bit of her irritation leak into her tone, unable to restrain herself. If she had thought about it, she might have guessed that her irritation had grown to almost anger.

"Yeah, that's what I said," Screweyes hissed at her, turning to her with a small grin on his face that was both confident and observing, with a splash of a look in his eye that was challenging her to prove him wrong.

_He's not taking me seriously_, Cleo thought, irritation growing more.

"All right, stand aside, you guys," Cleo told the other dinosaurs beside her, "and watch how it's done." She walked a couple steps forward towards Screweyes, stopping right in front of him. She lowered her head to level with his face, and noticing the small two steps backwards he made while she did so.

"They may have forgotten how to intimidate like dinosaurs should," Cleo began, letting all her irritation show in her glare at him, "but I haven't. Now I'm only going to give you one chance. Change the children back now."

"Or what?" Screweyes grumbled, returning a glare that kept the challenging tint to it.

"Or I'll tear one of your limbs off," Cleo replied, surprising herself a bit that the answer came so naturally, that she didn't have to think about it in the least. What surprised her a bit more, however, was the fact that she had bared her teeth when she made the threat. The confident expression in Screweyes's eye faded, but he still kept the observational and challenging expressions. He chuckled.

"You expect me to believe you would actually do that? You're just like the other one. You're all bark, but no bite."

Cleo's irritation reached a new peak. In one swift movement, she made two steps forward, and on the second step, she forced her foot on top of Screweyes, pinning him down on his back, but at the same time, she was careful to keep her weight out of that foot, so as not to crush him, the frail human he was. Once again, she leaned her head in to meet him in the eye, baring her teeth once more.

"Let me tell you something. Your brother didn't choose me for our mission. According to him, I snuck aboard looking for food, and ended up eating hot dogs with Brain Grain nutrients in them. He told me to stay behind on the ship because he believed I wasn't ready. He probably thought I might still have a spark of aggression in me, and that would have made me a potential endangerment to people, and you know what? He was right." Cleo then whipped her jaws to Screweyes's left arm, snatching it with her teeth. Screweyes yelled in pain. In an instant, she lifted her foot off of him, only to lift him into the air with his arm in her mouth. With Screweyes's continued screams of pain, Cleo barely made out multiple gasps of shock behind her.

"Let him down," Rex's voice calmly asked of her. She whipped her head around to look at the rest of the group; more yelling in pain from Screweyes. Naturally, the other four dinosaurs all had expressions of shock. She looked down on the chimpanzee children. They seemed oblivious to the situation, but they too were looking up at her with alerted alarm. Looking at them, Cleo felt her anger fade, to the point where she was able to reflect upon what she was doing. She turned her head back around to facing forward, leaned her head down some distance from the ground, and released Screweyes's arm. He fell to the ground with a thud.

"You've got quite a temper, you overgrown crocodile," Screweyes spat at her while bringing himself to his feet with his good arm. When he was on his feet, he clutched his injured arm and glared at her. "You're headstrong, I'll admit that, but I'm sorry to say that it'll take more than that to break my contract."

Then Screweyes turned to speak to the group as a whole.

"But I'll tell ya what I'd be willing to do. You all agree to take the Brain Drain, and I'll rip up this contract and set the kids free." he told them all while he walked in front of a curtain. As he continued, the curtain lifted up to reveal a machine resembling a vault with green and blue lighting, with neon letters above it, spelling out "Hellzapoppin." "If you don't take it, I'll bill 'em as the 'Wild Children's Hellzapoppin' and use them to scare people in the sideshow. It's up to you."

There was a pause, and Cleo's angry focus was broken by a gasp and a gulp behind her. She looked back to the others, and found that Dweeb, Elsa, and Woog were all looking to Rex for a decision, and he had an expression of both worry and almost hesitant decision. He took in a breath.

"I'll take it," he softly said.

"And I'll take it, you lonesome creature," Elsa said, turning herself to one side on Woog's back, folding her arms in an unhappy fashion.

"I'll do it," came Dweeb's cracked voice; tears were starting to roll down from his eyes.

"Me too," Woog slowly said, biting his lip to help control himself while tears came from his eyes as well.

"And what about _you_?" Screweyes's voice came, especially harsh with emphasis. Knowing he was talking to her, Cleo faced forward once again, and met his glare. She looked down at the chimpanzee children, who still seemed oblivious to the situation around them. She sighed.

"For the kids," she replied, dipping her head a little in a nod of agreement.

"Good, now you come with me," Screweyes instructed them, "We're gonna have to keep you in cages and chains, 'cause you're gonna be wild again."

Screweyes started walking towards one end of the tent, and they all began to follow him. Cleo started walking along with them after Woog, Elsa, and Dweeb took the lead in front of her, and Rex coming up from behind her. While the first three were almost to the end of the tent Screweyes was leading them to, Cleo sensed a lack in Rex's presence around her. She looked around, and found he had paused, and had gone back to the chimpanzee children, who were now lying down sleeping with their hands together. Rex approached them.

"Don't be scared," he whispered to them, "It'll be all right. It's no more than a bad dream." He then bent over and Cleo guessed from his movements that he then stroked each of them once with one of his hands. She looked over his shoulder as best she could. To Cleo's surprise, the children began reverting to their human selves. After they were humans again, Rex lingered, facing one side to them, with his tail in an incomplete circle around them.

"Come on, you two," a harsh, cold voice snapped, at which Rex seemed to jump. Cleo whipped her head back around to see that the other three were nowhere in sight, and Screweyes was waiting for her and Rex. She looked back at Rex.

"We were friends for man, Louie," he whispered. He then appeared to make another stroking motion on Louie.

"Oh…Rex?" Louie's half-asleep voice came, but he said no more. Rex then turned away from the two sleeping children. He took a few steps forward before turning his head back to them.

"Remember me," he said, then resumed walking up beside Cleo, who started to walk alongside him. Cleo took note of how he said to remember only him, and she figured he was mostly talking to Louie.

_He must really care for that boy_, she thought. _I wonder how he transformed them back into humans just by stroking them…_

They were led out of the tent, where the other three were waiting. Screweyes took the lead in front of them, and they all started following him. While they walked, Cleo still thought about Rex's words.

_I suppose we'll have to trust Louie and Cecilia to remember us as we are now, for I have the feeling what we'll become won't be so friendly to humans._


	10. Of Fear and Monsters

The tent Screweyes led them to was full of green and black coloring. Some crows flittered in the dark rafters in what could be considered the ceiling of the tent. There was a large yellow machine illuminating the inside of the tent with green light. There was a table in front of the machine which had several black items on it, which appeared to be pails of multiple sizes. There were also crates around the edges of the tent, and four large stump-like obstacles in the center of the set up, between the table and a line of large cages. There were four wooden-roofed, black-barred cages grouped into a small stage-like drop, with tarp forming a roof over the cages, with drops on each of the side ends of the line of cages and behind them. Within this "stage", there was a green glow of light behind the cages. The tarp seemed to be framed by poles and rafters, and along the top there seemed to be an electrical system connected to each cage, even to a cage separate from the rest. This cage was off from the left end of the line of cages (right, if one were looking at the cages from the front).

It was in this cage that Cleo was confined to. In the cage farthest from her in the line of cages was Dweeb, his arms shackled with chain-linked shackles, and his legs had shackles on them with chains that ended on the bottom of the cage. In the cage next to Dweeb was Elsa, who was perched on a perch stand, possibly forced in that position. In the next cage was Woog, whose legs were all chained to the bottom of the cage. Unlike the other four cages, which seemed to be the type that is hinged at a corner, and closes with horizontal movement, his cage door was hinged along the top edge, and seemed to close vertically in an arch down to the bottom edge of the cage. In the cage closest to Cleo was Rex. His arms and legs were shackled and chained just like Dweeb's were. Cleo was shackled and chained similarly, only her leg shackles had shorter chains, which allowed her absolutely no movement in her cage, and the chain that linked her arm shackles had a chain linked off the middle of it that chained down to the bottom of the cage, and it was particularly short. In other words, the chain forced Cleo's arms from moving as well, particularly to where she couldn't reach up to her face, even if she lowered her head down. She figured Screweyes took this extra precaution to restrict her movements to prevent her from lashing out on him again, whether in her present state, or in the primitive state they would all become.

Screweyes entered the tent, walking across a platform, with another, shorter figure behind him, but the shadows were limiting the details.

"Knowing my brother, the nice fellow most likely did not let fall how I lost my eye," Screweyes began as he walked up to the edge of the platform, where a small flight of stairs led down to the ground, "but I will tell you."

He began to walk down the stairs into the light. The figure behind him was revealed also: a short clown in yellow plaid overalls and wearing a striped hat. He had orange hair sticking from his ears, and was wearing white face makeup with a red circular object on the end of his nose. In the clown's right arm, he was cradling what appeared to be an old-fashioned black pot. "I was a boy. I was lying in the shadow of a berry bush taking a snooze."

Screweyes stopped at a table, and the clown set the pot down on it while Screweyes continued talking: "One of the berries, just one, fell upon my eye," he continued. He turned to face the dinosaurs while raising his right index finger and bringing it around up to his screw eye pointedly.

'Just there," he said while tapping twice the middle of his screw eye with his nail.

'A hungry bird spied the berry. It was a crow, I believe. He pecked for the berry, but got my eye as well. Senseless? Ye-es!" he shouted with a hint of a "duh" tone and a tone of perhaps being lost in his own memory, like he was talking to himself. His hair got suddenly wild as he shouted, a type of hairdo that reminded Cleo of a mad scientist. He patted his hair back down while turning back to the table.

'I have done nothing to earn such a fate," he began again, while the clown opened the lid to the pot, then tossing the lid aside. Cleo barely made out a green glowing inside the pot. The clown poured the green glowing pills from the pot into a pail on the table as Screweyes continued in an angry, bitter tone: "so ever since, I've known that the world made _no_ sense, and have acted accordingly."

With that, Screweyes grasped the handle of the pail, taking it off the table, and began walking around one end of the stump-like obstacles in the middle of the set up.

'I have a peculiar fear of crows, so I keep them by me," he started. He paused his steps, turning his body so he had his back to the cages. He set the pail down on the obstacle close to him, and he stretched his good arm out, and crows start perching on his arm. "I watch them with a real eye and a steel eye. I am afraid of them, but I am their master. I am the master of my fear!" he proclaimed, turning his head back around towards the cages, but Cleo could tell that he wasn't focusing his vision on anything particular.

_So this explains some things_, Cleo thought, glaring in a thoughtful expression, _he copes with his fears by becoming the commanding master of the physical forms of his fears_.

"This guy's nuts!" came Rex's voice, almost in a whisper. Cleo glanced over at him. He was giving an expression showing how strangely insane he thought Screweyes was. Next to him, Woog was coming out of a flinch, presumably one of sudden fright.

"So, let's get started, shall we?" Screweyes asked, back in an eerie tone of voice while picking the pail back up. Cleo saw him walk toward Dweeb's cage first. In the corner of her eye, she spotted movement. Turning her head, she saw the clown rummaging through an area of crates, and bringing out a coil of rope. She began to wonder what the rope was for, but her thoughts were interrupted by a choking sound. She looked back around, and saw Dweeb holding his throat. Screweyes had his good hand holding the door to Dweeb's cage, and then he thrust the door shut before starting to walk toward Elsa's cage. It slammed with a metal _clang_, and an electrical system seemed to activate upon the door's closing. Cleo could see bolts of electricity rush down every bar of the cage.

Cleo noticed the faces of horror on the other three as Dweeb began to change in appearance. His shades of green darkened into dark shades of olive green while his buck teeth retreated back into his mouth while his mouth itself seemed to swell some, especially his lips. He let out a cry that sounded almost like a sorrowful moan, but it had no such tone; it was his primitive dinosaur cry. Cleo herself was astounded at the effects. She began wondering how she would turn out, and she was reminded of the clown and the rope. She looked around for the clown, and noticed he was now standing right beside her cage. She had a growing suspicion, but it worried her to think about it.

One by one she watched the others transform right before her eyes. Elsa's colors dulled and darkened as well, while her beak became more pointed and narrow, and her eyes became less focused, as if oblivious to her surroundings while retaining a consistent sense of caution. She gave out a loud screech for her cry. Woog's colors of blue dulled and darkened into shades of bluish gray while all of his horns grew some in both length and point. His head crest grew as well, and became less rounded with ridges around the outline, and large flat teeth grew inside his mouth. Rex's colors of orange darkened into a shade of brown, while the dark stripes on his back faded and were replaced by spots. His eyes sunk a little lower onto each side of his head, just barely above the top of his skull, and his claws and teeth became sharper. His bellowing roar and increased aggressive behavior was a devastating site to Cleo. She then sensed presence in front of her cage. She looked down to see Screweyes looking back up at her.

"Oh, don't worry, you're next," he hissed, almost in a sarcastic tone. "I just wanted you to watch your friends turn into monsters, so you'll know what you'll become." Cleo knew from his tone that he meant for it to be a bit of torture on her. She glared down at him.

"I hope when I'm primitive again, I'll finish what I started with your arm," she snapped back at him.

"I doubt there's a chance of that. For now, be a good crocodile and open up for us," he replied, keeping his cocky tone. Knowing it was her turn to follow through with the deal, she sighed, then leaned her head down, and cracked her mouth open enough so they could put the pills in it.

Just then, she noticed Screweyes give her a small look of suspicion and hesitation. He turned to the clown.

"Stubbs, why don't you take this one? I don't trust her," he hissed, his question more of a command. The clown dropped the coil of rope in surprise, and he briefly glanced at Screweyes's injured arm.

"Are you sure, Professor? What if-?" the clown started, while fidgeting his fingers together.

"She doesn't have any reason to bite you, so she'll trust you more than me. Just do it," Screweyes interrupted commandingly. The clown took the pail of glowing green pills from Screweyes, then cautiously approached Cleo's open mouth. He dug his hand into the pills and scooped out a handful. He tossed the handful of pills into her mouth. All the while, Cleo noticed Screweyes step to the coil of rope and pick it up.

Right after the clown tossed the handful of pills into her mouth, he turned back to Screweyes, who swapped the rope for the pail. Even though the pills seemed to be burning on her tongue, Cleo kept her eyes on the two humans, trying to analyze what they were doing. The clown then approached her with the rope. It was revealed that it all ready had a noose ready in it. Before Cleo could react, the clown thrust the noose over her snout, instantly tightening it.

Cleo struggled, picking her head back up, then flailing her head from side to side, but the rope stayed put. Realizing right away that the efforts she would be physically able to do would be to no avail, she stopped flailing her head. She noticed that the clown had let go of the other end of the rope; he had probably predicted she would struggle, and he probably would have only gotten hurt if he tried to resist her superior strength. Screweyes hastily stepped to her cage door, and slammed it shut; electricity surged through the bars. Cleo also noticed that inside her mouth, the pills had slipped to the edge of her throat. She had no choice but to swallow out of involuntary action.

The pills left a repulsive aftertaste in her throat, but that wasn't the worst part. Cleo felt a headache so massive it felt as if her skull was going to tear apart. The pain was so great, she started struggling again, despite knowing there was nothing she could do to make it stop. She barely noticed under the pain of her splitting headache the small pains in her teeth and claws. Just then, she felt another kind of feeling in her head, one of shrinking of the mind as thoughts faded into senses of primitive knowing, of instinct alone. She also felt a sting in one of her legs. She whipped her head around to see a short figure holding a large object with a long, narrow point attached to a tube of some kind. She began to feel light-headed on top of the other feelings in her head.

"How you'll be terrified, my grateful audience! Awww, how you-" sounded a dark voice, which was the last thing the Spinosaurus heard before giving in to sleep, her body losing all its strength as she buckled, collapsing to the cage floor.


	11. Familiar Strange Faces

The Spinosaurus opened her eyes, finding them unusually heavy. The first thing she took in was that it was daytime. She saw she was in some sort of covered area, and with her were other large creatures, a few of them she sensed were types she would hunt, but the other she sensed was a hunter, the kind she would compete with for food and territory. The next thing she noticed was that the other creatures were each inside a large object with long sticks between the top and bottom and which were all around the sides of the objects.

Looking back from them, she noticed she was in such an object as well. She lifted herself up, finding a strange feeling in her head that almost made her want to lie back down. However, it soon faded. She leaned forward, and went to lift a foot up to take a step forward, but found that something was holding her foot down, preventing her from taking any steps. She looked back at her foot, and found that there was something encircling her foot, something hard, and from it was a small line of hard-looking strangely-shaped circles that went into the bottom of the object she was in. She tried once again to move her foot while keeping an eye on it, but whatever it was keeping her foot from moving kept its hold. Turning her head back around, she roared in frustration, but instantly finding that her mouth couldn't open, and as such, the roar was trapped inside. She tried opening her mouth for testing purposes, but found something was keeping her mouth from opening, something vine-like that was tied around her snout. She reached up with her claws to tear it off, but found that something was holding her arms down as well. She turned her head to look at it, and saw that her arms were held down similarly as with her feet. She struggled with these arm bindings, but they too kept their hold. She again roared in frustration, but with the same result as before. It started to sink into her that she could go nowhere, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Then she heard small footsteps. She looked over at the open part of the area's covering, where daylight was coming in. There were three small creatures. The one in front seemed to be a young male, with a lot of black, red, and blue for his colors. There was also a young female around the same age as the first one, and she had a lot of white on her with some greenish blue. The third seemed to be older than the other two, although he was shorter. He was colored in a lot of orange, yellow, and white. The Spinosaurus had the tiniest, faintest sense of familiarity about each of these three, but she couldn't identify why.

Upon the arrival of these three small creatures, the Spinosaurus heard each of the other four large creatures suddenly cry out. Something about the sudden excitement in the air made her struggle against her bindings, which only led her to trying to roar again in her rekindled frustration. Noticing that it got quiet again, she calmed back down. It was then she heard a sound from the small creatures.

"What's happened to them, Mr. Stubbs?" the young female sounded to the older male. The Spinosaurus didn't understand their kind of sound, only understood that it was their way of communicating with each other.

"The Professor said some stuff that set them off the deep end. That's why they tore up the contract," the older male sounded. The Spinosaurus saw the younger male take a step forward, and seemingly downward. At the same time, she heard the other hunter creature shuffle; his footstep heavy against the bottom of the object he was in. Sensing it meant nothing, the Spinosaurus turned back to the three small creatures.

'It was a deal they made," the older male seemed to finish from what he was communicating.

"So they're this way, 'cause of me?" the younger male sounded.

"I guess so," the older male seemed to reply. Though the Spinosaurus couldn't understand them, she noticed something about the tones of the two males that was negative in nature; not angry, but probably not normal either. She heard the small female make a sharp sound with her breath.

"Louie, look! Is that Cleo?" the young female sounded. The younger male instantly turned his head towards the Spinosaurus. The sense of familiarity came back to the Spinosaurus, and another sense joined it at the very last part of what the young female sounded. However, the Spinosaurus couldn't remember why anything was familiar, and there was a hurting in her head. The pain of it made her struggle more against her bindings, trying to pull them out from each angle she could manage. She tried roaring again in her pain and growing frustration; again, the binding around her snout held back the roar.

"I think it is," the younger male sounded. He then turned to look at the older male. "Why is she so restrained like that?"

"From what I heard, she took something the Professor said as a challenge against how tame they all were. She ended up biting one of the Professor's arms, and nearly breaking it. This is why she has stronger restraints than the others; she proved she was potentially more violent and aggressive than the others," the older male sounded, seemingly in response to the younger male, who turned back to look at the Spinosaurus.

"I-I didn't think she had that in her," he sounded. There was something in his face and tone of voice almost like sadness, but then it changed as he turned back to the older male. "What will happen to them, Stubbs?"

"He's featuring them in the show tonight," the older male seemed to respond, then turning around to head back outside as he continued, "All the usual weirdos will show up, I'm sure." The two younger creatures then followed right behind him.

"Stubbs, you've gotta get us in that show!" the younger male sounded. The three seemed to pause their movement as they exited.

"I can't do that!" the older male sounded.

"Don't you see? They did this for us!" the younger male seemed to respond. The Spinosaurus couldn't see what they were doing, but kept her gaze at them out of curiosity. She saw the younger male gesture with his arms back inside the covered area before continuing his communication, while swinging his arms back toward the older male.

'This guy's crazy, Stubbs. He's never gonna laugh at your jokes," the younger male continued. There was a small crashing sound, with the older male suddenly disappearing from sight, with the two younger ones following right behind.

The Spinosaurus turned her gaze from the opening. Though she had not understood the meanings of the sounds they made, she was sure from the way they came in, conversed some, then left, that the reason they had come in the first place involved her and the rest of the large creatures she was next to. It made her head hurt again to think over it.

000000000

Later in the day, two figures came to their area. One was the older male creature from earlier, and the other was a taller male who seemed to be even older than the shorter one, and was mostly black for his coloration. The shorter one was pushing something that seemed to have some small square-shaped objects stacked on it. The Spinosaurus could smell something in a couple of the square objects that made something growl inside her. The shorter male carefully pushed his carrying object down what appeared to be a strange, small, jagged cliff. He then pushed it around to the middle of the area. While he pushed it, the Spinosaurus noticed the square objects were resting against the carrying object's hard-looking sticks, and it was moving with two circular objects at the bottom. He was pushing it with his hands gripping two hard-looking sticks extending backwards from the top.

He stopped pushing it when he got to the large creature at the far end. He let it stand straight up, and then he took the square object from the top of the stack. He opened the object, and inside it appeared to be yellowish flat lines of a nature not unlike flat greens that are eaten by the kind of creatures that the Spinosaurus and other hunters would hunt. The short male lifted the yellow food from inside the square object it was in, and it all came out as one square shape. He tossed the square of yellow food through the hard-looking sticks of the large object that held that large creature.

The Spinosaurus noticed how there was space in between the sticks of their confining objects. She looked back to the sticks in front of her, trying to let an idea to come to her. Before she could start, she noticed the taller male of the two small creatures had come closer to her, and was looking up at her.

"Have you been a good dinosaur today?" he sounded. There was something about his tone that she didn't like. She dipped her head down and slightly forward to get a better look at him. She used her instincts to sense his being. She sensed something bad about him that strangely set off a twinge of irritation, though she didn't know why. She made a low growl from this irritation.

"Splendid," the taller male sounded, seemingly in response to her growl. She noticed that one of his eyes was very strange and different than his normal eye. She also noticed that there were white bindings around one of his arms. There were flashes in her head that seemed to want to form into sights, but were too weak to, but instead left her with a pain in her head like before. She growled more loudly from the pain and the irritation of how it kept returning.

"Now, now. Don't worry, you'll get your lunch, too," the taller male sounded. A smell came to the Spinosaurus. She calmed down enough to turn her attention towards the smell, and noticed the shorter male was pushing the carrying object towards her. She also noticed that there was only one square shape object left on it.

She watched as the shorter male stopped the carrying object next to the taller male. The taller male then walked closer to one corner of the front of her confining object. The Spinosaurus leaned her head down again to inspect him, to watch for signals on what he was planning.

"Making this easier, are ya?" he sounded. "Look into my eye."

Some green color began to come from his strange eye, and the Spinosaurus couldn't help but look at it. Her sight became filled with the strange eye, with the green circling around it. It ended as quickly as it started, and the entire figure of the taller male at the corner of her confining object, only everything had taken on a green tint.

"Now hold still," he sounded. The Spinosaurus still couldn't understand the sounds these small creatures made, but all of a sudden, she could understand the meaning of what the taller male just sounded. However, this new understanding didn't feel like her own, like something else was in her head giving the understanding to her. It also felt like it had control over her own will, as she found herself holding still, waiting for the next sound from the taller male creature.

She barely heard a creaking sound she couldn't quite identity. Then she faintly felt a relief from around her snout. Her mouth reactively opened itself a bit from the relief. Then she felt something soft hit her tongue, something good to the taste.

"Now chew," the taller male sounded. The Spinosaurus instantly started chomping down on the meat in her mouth, and soon instinctually tilted her head back to let the food slide down her mouth as she swallowed.

This process repeated a couple more times until the square shape seemed to have nothing left inside it.

"Now hold still again," the taller male sounded. The Spinosaurus held still while there was a faint feel around her snout once more, and then it felt tighter. Afterwards, the creaking sound from before sounded again.

"Good girl," the taller male sounded. The Spinosaurus barely heard small footsteps that began to grow faint. There was a sudden burst of light from the left, from which the Spinosaurus blinked in surprise. She then noticed that the green tint her sight had was now gone, and her sight was normal again. She also noticed that the understanding and controlling in her head was also gone. Blinking a few times, she turned towards the opening to the outside. Both of the small creatures were there, leaving through it, with the shorter male behind the taller male, who was all ready outside.

"Tonight, this will be one show nobody will ever forget," the taller male's voice sounded.


	12. Denied Hope and Freedom

Some hours later, nighttime fell upon the world. Throughout the day, the Spinosaurus had learned instinctively that she was helpless to her bindings, and so she remained standing in her large confining object, waiting for something to happen. Sometime when daylight was fading into night, the tall, old small creature from before returned to the area with the large creatures, only this time he brought with him a large group of other small creatures.

The Spinosaurus watched the group split into pairs as they walked to each of the large confining objects, including hers. She leaned her head down to get a better view of the pair next to her. She heard footsteps, and peered up to see the tall, old creature coming up to her. Before she could try to sense what he was about to do, green color once again came out of his strange eye. In a moment, her eyesight was once again tinted green.

She felt some time go by as she waited for something, though she didn't know what, but she did notice the strange feeling of something inside her head again, controlling her. She then heard a creaking noise, only this time, it seemed to be multiple creaking noises sounding all at once. She heard clicking noises around the area, and felt relief from around her wrists and ankles. Her instincts instantly were pushing her to escape, but the foreign feeling inside her head kept her instincts from turning into action.

"All right, you monsters follow me," a dark voice sounded. The Spinosaurus turned her gaze upon the tall creature, who was starting to walk toward the opening in the covering over the area, leading to outside. She took a step forward, stepping out of her confining object in the process. Barely noticing that the other large creatures having done the same, she follows obediently after the tall, old creature.

He led them through the opening, instructing them to go through it one at a time. Outside waiting was a large, flat-topped raised object. The Spinosaurus barely noticed that in some spots on the flat-topped object were several somewhat large black circular objects from which stemmed similar bindings to what was in the confining objects. The tall, old creature instructed them to step onto the large flat-topped object, while he showed them where they would each stand. They all obediently followed his instructions, and the Spinosaurus barely noticed that after they were all at where they were instructed to go, they were next to the large circular objects. She also barely acknowledged the clicking sounds that followed soon after, and the feeling of something tight around her wrists and ankles once again.

While waiting for another command, or something else to happen, the Spinosaurus stared down in front of her. She saw a group of large (but not as large as the large creatures around her on the flat object they were standing on) grey creatures, seeming to be confined and bound together while bound to the large flat object, and they were all turned to face forward. She sensed they were a kind of creature she might hunt, if it weren't for her lack of appetite, and the foreign feeling in her head that had control over her.

Suddenly, white light beamed up in front of her, from the edge of the large flat object. The unexpected light made the Spinosaurus flinch out of surprise, blinking from the flash of the light's brightness. When she opened her eyes from blinking, she noticed that the green tint and the foreign feeling in her head were both once again gone. She then noticed something dark start to grow from the edges of the large platform, crawling up the beams of white light as it did so. In a matter of seconds, the dark matter covered the beams, making it impossible to see what was happening around the flat object. However, the white light did allow some visibility in the now-enclosed area on the flat object. The Spinosaurus looked around to get a sense of what was going on. She saw that the white light came up from the edges of the flat object, and angled inwards some, and their top ends met each other above her and the large creatures. It was then she noticed the other large creatures. To her left side was the other hunter, who was staring back at her in curiosity. She looked behind her and saw the other three creatures- the purple flying creature was directly behind her, the green one was positioned about in the middle, and the blue one was positioned directly behind the other hunter creature. She noticed they all had bindings on their necks and ankles in a similar fashion as to when they were back in the confining objects, except for the other hunter creature, who only had ankle bindings, and that they were all bound to the large black circular objects.

Bringing her awareness back on herself, the Spinosaurus noticed she too had bindings on her ankles, but unlike the others with two arms, her wrists were also bound together and restrained down, just like in her confining object. She tested the truth in it by trying to pull her arms up, to no avail. She tried roaring in frustration and annoyance, only to find that her mouth was still bound shut. Remembering what she had learned earlier that day, she didn't try again. She knew she would have to wait for another unknown amount of time for something to happen.

However, she didn't need to wait long. Only a moment later, the enclosed flat object seemed to make a small jolt, followed by a rumbling noise and vibrations; the flat object was starting to move.

00000

The large flat object was only in its slow-paced motion for a short time when the Spinosaurus began to hear some strange new sounds. One was a rumbling sound separate from the rumbling the flat object was making; it wasn't as prominent as other sounds, and it was short, ending with a low airy sound. Another sound became more prominent as the flat object continued its path. This new sound was constantly changing in tone, and didn't appear to have an end very soon.

The Spinosaurus then felt the flat object go so slow it almost settled into a stop. Then she heard a loud noise, like something happening to something heavy. She felt the flat object now settle into a stop. She started to wonder what was going on, when she noticed that the constantly-changing sound had just become one tone, and it stopped. She heard in its place a low sound that was rapidly changing between two tones. Soon after this new sound started, a familiar voice sounded.

"Ladies and gentleman!" the familiar voice sounded. The Spinosaurus almost instantly recognized it as the old small creature with the strange eye.

'I give you the most fearsome creatures of your darkest dreams. I give you…" he sounded, and seemed to pause, as if he had something more to communicate.

'Monsters!" he sounded in a harsh tone.

Right after this last sound, there came a loud sound from the edges of the flat object. The sudden sound made the Spinosaurus flinch in surprise, and she saw red light crawl up from the edges, and seemingly consuming the dark matter in a manner that reminded the Spinosaurus of the hot light that destroyed everything in its path, as would occur once in a while in her homeland. Thinking of her homeland, the Spinosaurus realized that she was not in her homeland, but some place far different. Her instincts told her to try to escape and return to her homeland. She then noticed the energy around her soar. Glancing around, she saw that the other large creatures were all in a commotion, roaring and growling. The energy in the air made her forget what she learned about her bindings, and struggled against them, only to once again become frustrated. She took a glance, and saw that the dark matter had disappeared off of the white streaks of light, and now the white streaks were falling away from each other, off the edges of the flat object before disappearing.

She noticed then that now she could see her surroundings. They seemed to be in a large circular area, and it was covered just like where she and the other large creatures were confined throughout the day. However, the major difference was that around the edges of the area were strange-looking cliffs, and there were seemingly countless small creatures like she's seen throughout that day. These new creatures on the cliffs seemed to be in a panic as they all scrambled for the tops of the cliffs. She heard the other hunter creature beside her snap his mouth a couple times, and then let out a loud bellowing roar. It was then she noticed that the other large creatures had started to settle down, and the energy in the air amongst them died down as well.

"Now, I will attempt the impossible," the familiar voice of the old small creature sounded. The Spinosaurus looked down, noticing that he was standing on the edge of the large flat object between her and the other hunter. She noticed that he was also facing away from them, towards the other small creatures on the cliffs.

'I will attempt to master the most fearsome of all the dinosaur clan. The ultimate sets of teeth in the history of the world, these two mighty carnivores!" he sounded, and right after he finished, he waved his normal arm behind him, towards the group of large creatures as he twisted his body halfway to face them, turning his face all the way back to look at them. The Spinosaurus noticed that a bright white light had suddenly shone on her and the other hunter. Thinking nothing of it for now, she looked down at the old creature. She saw him twist his body the rest of the way to face them, but she could sense that with the way he was only staring upwards to face her and the other hunter, turning his head side to side to look at each of them, he meant to do something with her and the other hunter only. She bent her head down closer to him to get a sense of just what that intention might be.

'Look into my eye, you blood-thirsty things," he sounded, seemingly to just the Spinosaurus and the other hunter. The Spinosaurus noticed that green light was once again coming out of his strange eye, only aimed between her and the other hunter, which she noticed had bent his down as well. She saw him growl-roar in protest, and struggle against his circular objects, to no avail. Turning her awareness back to the green light, she saw it split, and went into the other hunter's right eye while also going into her left. Remembering the effects of the green light, she wanted to fight against it happening again, but before she could, her eyesight had a growing green tint, while the foreign feeling in her head reappeared. A few more seconds later, she felt herself once again waiting for the old small creature to communicate something to her. Under the feeling of being controlled, she barely noticed that the other hunter looked to be the same way.

'Remove their circles!" the old small creature sounded. The Spinosaurus sensed that what he had communicated was not directed at either her or the other hunter, so she waited. She heard sounds of undoing something small but hard, and she felt a small amount of relief around her ankles and wrists, then more sounds of something small but hard hitting itself, coming from right underneath her.

'Now, take two giant steps!" the old small creatures sounded. This time, the Spinosaurus sensed that this communication was directed at both her and the other hunter. The foreign feeling in her head gave her understanding of what he said, and forced her to take two steps forward, off the edge of the flat object, onto what felt to be ground. She barely noticed that the other hunter had done the same, at the same time as she had. She also barely noticed that the other small creatures on the cliffs were now scrambling more to the tops of the cliffs, panic still radiating from them.

'Heh heh heh. Now take two steps toward the audience!" the old creature sounded. The Spinosaurus let herself take two more steps forward, barely noticing that the other creature had once again done the same.

'So you see, the creatures that scare you all do what I say," the old creature sounded. The Spinosaurus sensed that he was communicating to the other small creatures again, which were continuing to crowd the tops of the cliffs in their panic.

'I am the master of fear, and I am not afraid!"

The Spinosaurus then barely noticed a very small black flying creature glide through the area, and land inside a darkened area. There was a brief high-pitched sound, and bright white lights suddenly shone in front of the Spinosaurus. She flinched from the surprise, again blinking, and again noticing that when she reopened her eyes, the green tint in her eyesight and the foreign feeling in her head were both gone.


	13. The King and Queen

The foreign feeling in her head was gone, as was the green tint in her eyesight. The Spinosaurus still noticed the binding feeling around her snout. She tried lifting her arms upwards again, and this time found that her arms were no longer restrained together or down; she could move them freely. Not thinking on it, she dipped her head downwards, and reached her arms up to her snout. She clawed at the bindings on her snout until she felt it release its hold tiny bits at a time.

Then she heard something, a fear-filled sound from her left. She whipped her head around to see the other hunter creature holding the small old creature in one hand, lifting him up to his mouth. Her instincts ran wild, sensing that the other hunter had seen the small creature as food, and she wanted in on it as well. She spread her jaws open in a loud roar, barely noticing that in the process, the bindings around her mouth broke the rest of the way and the pieces fell to the ground.

_GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWRRRGH!_

The other hunter paused what he was doing to glare at the Spinosaurus. She whipped her body around as she started approaching the other hunter, barely realizing that she could walk freely, though she did feel something a little heavy around her ankles still, but she ignored it for now, focusing on the other hunter. She snapped her jaws challengingly at him as she took another step towards him. He snapped his own jaws fiercely at her, but she evaded his snapping jaws, quickly stepping to the left and in an instant, lowering her head down, and ramming it into his shoulder, unintentionally the same shoulder of the arm that was holding the small old creature. She felt the muscles in that arm weaken, just before she picked her head up to see him stagger backwards, the small old creature falling from his grasp, but she barely acknowledged this fact, nor did she acknowledge how the small old creature thud hard on the ground, but pick himself up and scurry off to the side. She didn't care about the reason for the fight anymore. Though the weird spinning feeling in her head didn't feel natural, something did feel natural about fighting the other hunter that she didn't want to end right then.

The other hunter charged at her in what she sensed to be his irritation. Quickly getting over the spinning in her head, she stepped to the right to dodge, but her tail didn't whip with her quick enough, and the other hunter quickly seized the opportunity, snapping his teeth on the end of her tail. The Spinosaurus roared out in her pain. She whipped her body back towards him, instinctually aware that her tail was just barely long enough that she could do so even with him preventing her tail from moving with her. She rammed her head into his side again, though the other side from before, and in addition to the spinning feeling in her head coming back, she felt him release her tail from her blow.

She whipped her tail back behind her as the spinning feeling faded again and as she turned to directly face the other hunter, who had recovered from her last blow enough to look at her. They exchanged glares; the Spinosaurus could sense he was feeling beyond irritated with her, and she knew the fight had become personal. It was no longer a fight for a meal, but one to establish the alpha hunter creature of the area. He let out a load bellow in his aggravation with her:

_RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!_

She responded with a load roar of her own:

_GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWRRRRRGH!_, instinctually knowing this was their way of communicating to each other that neither was ready to yield to the other.

The Spinosaurus saw the other hunter slightly dip his head down, with the top of his head facing visible to her, but he could still keep his eyes on her. Sensing what he was about to do, the Spinosaurus dipped her own head down similarly. She kept her eyes on the other hunter, and she saw him start taking a step towards her, leaning his body forwards slightly. Sensing what he was doing, the Spinosaurus herself starting stepping towards him, quickening her pace at the same time as he did. When they were close to colliding with each other, the Spinosaurus suddenly lifted her head up and thrust her hands out. Her hands caught the other hunter on each side of his head, just behind the edges of his mouth. At the same time, she pushed back against him, using her own weight to slow his charge. Once he was coming to a stop, she let him move forward a couple steps more, while she took a couple steps to her left, to his right side. She looked at what she was instinctually was going for: his exposed neck. She thrust her head forward in her last step to the side, and bit down hard on the back of his neck with a firm grasp. She heard him roar in pain, but she held her grip.

Acting on an instinct she didn't quite understand herself, she slowly began to move her hands to grasp his neck. She just got her left hand onto his neck, to the left of her mouth, when she suddenly felt a great pain on her right arm. The immense pain caused the Spinosaurus to release the grip of her jaws on the other hunter's neck and let out a loud roar in response to the pain:

_GRAAAAWRRGH! _ She glanced to her right, and found that the other hunter had bitten down on her right arm.

Remembering her left arm was still free on the back of his neck, she moved her left arm forward a bit, and then jerked it back, slashing his neck with her claws. He roared out in pain again:

_RAAAAAAWRRR!_, releasing her right arm. She took his moment of inaction to quickly lower her head and ram it into his right shoulder for the second time. The blow takes him off guard, and he stumbles to the side, his body still hunched over from his increasing fatigue, his back nearly horizontal.

The Spinosaurus took the opportunity to attack him again, and she charged the distance between them, watching him turn his head to her with anger in his expression, his mouth in a snarl and his teeth bared. Before he could do anything, she was all ready whipping her head and arms to grasp his neck again, and at the same time, pushing down on him. Her momentum and strength combined was enough to force the other hunter to fall onto the ground on his underside. While forcing him down, the Spinosaurus adjusted the positions of her mouth and hands so that her mouth had a strong clasp on the back of his neck, and her hands had a firm grip on either side of her mouth, her clawed fingers curled tightly right over his neck bones.

The Spinosaurus knew she had conquered the other hunter, and instinctually knew that she had to finish him off to claim her place as alpha hunter. She also knew that to do so, all she had to do was do one quick forward motion with her mouth and hands. She jerked her mouth and hands backwards as to make the movement a little more powerful. She felt in her mind a readiness to follow through with the movement.

"No! Don't do it!"

**Author's Note: Here it is, my dear readers. The chapter I've been looking forward to since I first had the idea to do this story. I apologize for the relative shortness of the chapter, but I couldn't resist the perfect opportunity for a cliffhanger. :P**


	14. From Strange to Familiar

"No, don't do it!" came a small fear-filled voice from her left.

The Spinosaurus paused, her readiness shattered. In her irritation, she took her mouth off the other hunter's neck, whipped her head to the left and gave a growling sound at whatever interrupted her kill.

_GRAWRRRRGH!_ The Spinosaurus then saw what had made the sound that interrupted her. There was a small light brown creature with a big mean-looking face, big hands and feet, and seemed to have something covering most of its skin, and something red on the top of its head that didn't seem natural. What also didn't seem natural was how there seemed to be a face inside the creature's big mouth. Whatever this strange small creature was, the Spinosaurus would have to deal with it for it interrupting her kill. She growled in her irritation.

"Cleo…" the strange creature sounded. The Spinosaurus noticed how it was using the same kind of communication sound as the small creatures she had been seeing since she woke up in her confining object. The sound the strange creature had just made caused a speck of pain inside the Spinosaurus's head that was familiar in nature, but one she didn't want to feel again. She growled again.

The strange creature lifted one of its arms; that hand grasping its face, while the other hand lifted up and grasped the red top. The second hand took off the red top, while the first hand peeled its face back, making the mouth open wide, revealing a small young male creature that seemed familiar to the Spinosaurus. The hand of the strange brown creature that was holding the red top then put the red top onto the young male's head. The young male then seemed to peel his arms out of the arms of the brown creature, and then he grasped the edge of the mouth of the strange brown creature, and pushed down while lifting his legs seemingly out of the legs of the brown creature. He stepped away from the brown creature, which now seemed to be all skin now, lying on the ground lifeless. The Spinosaurus then noticed that the young male was looking up at her, with a strange expression on his face she couldn't identify.

"Don't you recognize me? It's me, Louie," he sounded at her, with a tone in his voice just as strange as his facial expression. The Spinosaurus remembered the three small creatures that appeared earlier in the day, one older male, one young female, and one younger male, who had white on his feet, blue on his legs, and red and black around his middle and arms and on his head. She had no doubt this young male was the same creature, and he was using a similar tone in his voice as he did earlier. She noticed that at the very last sound he had made just then, the speck of pain in her head grew a bit. She made a low growl as she tried to figure out what it all meant.

The Spinosaurus saw movement at the edge of her eyesight. She looked a ways to the right. She saw a familiar small creature seemingly pulling himself along the edge of the ground, where there seemed to be a structure separating the ground from the area where strange cliffs were set up. The Spinosaurus recognized this small creature as the old one with the strange eye and that has been controlling her and the other large creatures. She made a hissing growl in her recognition. The small old creature whipped his head instantly to look at her. The Spinosaurus noticed that his eyes immediately filled with fear, and his mouth hung open in a fearful expression. She looked at his arm that had the white bindings on it. The pain in her head instantly grew and like before, flashes happened inside the Spinosaurus's head that were trying to form into images. The pain was so great, the Spinosaurus winced, taking her hands off of the other hunter, to put her hands over her head, which she dipped down in her wincing. She let the tips of her claws pierce into the top of her head, almost hoping the pain from her claws would make the pain inside her head go away. However, it did not. The flashing and pain only continued. The Spinosaurus took a few steps backward, growl-roaring in her suffering. _GRRRRAWRRRRRGH!_

Suddenly the pain subsided considerably. The Spinosaurus noticed it, and aside from the small hurting leftover, she felt a small touch on one of her legs. She lowered her arms from her head, and turned her head to the left. She saw the young small male creature with the outer half of his right arm touching against her leg. He wasn't looking up at her, but seemed to look at her leg, but with a look in his eyes she couldn't identify. He raised his left hand, placed the palm of it onto her leg, and began stroking her on the leg. He then turned his head and gazed up at her. The look in his eyes gave the Spinosaurus a strange feeling.

"Cleo, you have to remember," he sounded, his voice seemingly cracked for some reason the Spinosaurus couldn't figure out. "You always seemed to not take things as they appeared to be, like you somehow knew something the rest of us couldn't see. Now I think those were your instincts, Cleo. You were afraid of your own instincts, weren't you? I have seen why, but the way I see it, they are what make you special among the group. Look at me, Cleo, and use your instincts to remember." The young male's eyes then seemed to glaze over with an invisible layer that shone in the light.

The Spinosaurus took her eyes off the young male creature, slightly turning her head, as her mind filled with flashes again, only this time, they didn't hurt. Aside from it all, the Spinosaurus could still feel the young male stroking her leg. The flashes began to lessen, as sounds and images replaced them inside her head.

_"Why not just give me some sort of antidote and release me back into the wild?" The Spinosaurus sounded, in the same kind of sound as the small creatures as she drooped expressively. "Why keep me at all?"_

_ "I believe everyone deserves the chance for intelligence. Taking it away would be cruel," said a kind voice from an old small creature. "Besides, despite the possibility that you may have a violent spark in you still, I'm not giving up on you just yet…"_

_ A bubble with the young male creature, who sounds, "Gee, I wish I had a friend."_

_ The young female creature coming off the flying creature, as the young male sounds, "Everybody, I'd like you to meet my new friend, Cecilia Nuthatch."_

_ Two furry creatures wearing the same…clothes as the two young creatures did. The other hunter sounds, "Change them back! Or I'll-"_

_ "Or you'll what?" interjects the bad old creature with the…screw for an eye. "You're too enlightened by my brother's Brain Grain, you've lost your savagery. You've lost your frightening prehistoric power to intimidate…"_

_ The Spinosaurus pinning the old creature to the ground, sounding, "…I might still have a spark of aggression in me, and that would have made me a potential danger to people, and you know what? He was right."_

_ The Spinosaurus's own voice in a thought: "I suppose we'll have to trust Louie and Cecilia to remember us as we are now, for I have the feeling what we'll become won't be so friendly to humans."_

The Spinosaurus found herself understanding the language in her memories, the language of the small creatures…humans. Along with words, she started to remember other things. The kind old creature…Captain Neweyes, who had told her to stay behind on the ship so he could keep an eye on her. His memory gave the Spinosaurus a pain in her gut…guilt. Captain Neweyes's brother, the creature who had been controlling her and the rest of the dinosaurs…Professor Screweyes. She was the cause of his injured arm, the reason why it was in a cast. The other dinosaurs, with whom she has stuck with ever since the day they were dropped into this city…Elsa, Dweeb, Woog, and Rex. The two children, Louie and Cecilia, who had been there for the dinosaurs ever since meeting them. Something about Rex had reverted them from their ape forms back into humans. The Spinosaurus now had a feeling what that something was, and this human boy was giving her the same thing. It was the love that is felt in strong friendship.

The Spinosaurus looked back at the human boy, Louie. He was staring up at her in awe, and his eyes shifted to her hands. She stood upright so she could arch her head down to look at her hands herself. She saw that the claws were slowly broadening and dulling. She bet that her teeth and toe claws were doing the same. She then noticed that among her changing, her mind was all ready growing, replacing raw primitive instinct.

"Cleo?" Louie's small voice came. She looked down at him, finally recognizing that name as hers. Louie was looking up at her inquisitively, as if he wanted to know if she recognized him, after seeing her changes. She hunched back down to meet him more at eye level. She moved the tip of her tongue up the roof of her mouth, positioning it for something she wanted to try, to see if she remembered how to do it.

"…L-Louie?" she asked rhetorically. She grinned on the inside, as she felt a happiness, a pride, at the fact she remembered how to talk.

"Way to go, Cleo!" Louie shouted joyfully, jumping in the air. He then ran up to her, and embraced his arms around her snout. Cleo couldn't help but let a smile form on her own face.


	15. Damage Assessment

While Louie clung to her snout, Cleo's ears suddenly noticed something. She glanced around and saw that the whole audience in the bleachers was applauding, the greatest amount of applause Cleo had ever seen. Most of them were giving standing ovations, and many of them were whistling out, and countless hats were being tossed into the air.

_They must be cheering for Louie's bravery. Admittedly, he was something else, confronting the deadly, vicious dinosaur I'm sure that I was, and that could have ripped him in half and not thought twice about it. Instead, he ended up reverting said super-predator back into a tame state. You don't find bravery like that every day_, she thought, her smile growing as she looked back down on the boy.

Cleo saw movement coming from the front. She glanced up and Cecilia sprinting up to them. Cecilia put her hand on Louie's shoulder to get his attention. He instantly broke his hug on Cleo's snout as he turned to Cecilia, who gave him a wordless look on her smiling face. In a split second, he seemed to understand the unspoken words, and both turned their attentions to the other dinosaurs. They rushed in different directions. Louie went straight for Rex, who was still stuck on his belly next to the wall bordering the center ring. He still had a mean look on his face from the fight, but Louie didn't seem to notice as he rushed around Rex's arm, and wrapped his arms around the tyrannosaur's neck. Instantly, Rex's brown brightened into orange as his spots were replaced by stripes, his eyes moved higher up, and his teeth and claws broadened and dulled. After he was fully reverted back to the way he was, he gave a huge smile at Louie. Cleo watched the pair with fondness, until her eyes wondered to Rex's neck. There were marks where teeth had grasped him-her teeth, and he had three nasty red slash cuts across the back of his neck. She saw that he had all ready begun to bruise around the tooth marks. She looked down at his right side, and saw signs of bruising in two large spots, one around on his ribs, and the other on his shoulder. Cleo quietly gulped, as guilt came over her.

_The least I can do to make it up to him, I guess, is to help him up. Louie certainly won't be able to_, she thought with a sigh. She moved closer to Rex, and looked down at Louie, who was looking up at her. She gave him a small smile, and slightly whipped her head to the side expressively, asking him to move away, and move on to the other dinosaurs. He smiled back in understanding, and scurried away. Cleo turned to Rex.

"All right. Let's get you up, shall we?" she asked rhetorically. He smiled at her, and tried to push himself up with his arms. However, he seemed to suddenly get stricken by pain in one of his arms, and it forced his upward pushing to break, and with a groan, he crashed back onto the ground with a hard thud. Feeling even guiltier about the damage she did to him, Cleo stepped around to his left side, and dipped her head down as he tried pushing himself up again. Cleo inserted her head underneath the side of his chest, next to his arm. She pushed up with her head, pushing against the ground with her own arms for support. There was pain in Cleo's right arm, but she tried her best to ignore it.

The leverage formation started to work, as Rex held onto her neck with his left arm, which helped keep him up as he was being pushed up off the ground, to the point where he could bring his legs up from their outstretched position, and plant his feet along the ground. Having done so, with Cleo still using herself as support, they managed to get him standing. Cleo whipped her body around so that they were side by side, with Rex's arm still hanging over the back of her neck, while she wrapped her right arm underneath his arm, and around his back, with Cleo still helping support Rex, who was wincing now from his injuries.

"What happened?" Rex asked her. Cleo looked at him with an expression of her guilt and remorse. Split second memories flashed in her mind, of her and Rex in their primitive states, roaring at each other. She looked away from him.

"I think you and me got into a fight," Cleo replied. The truth was, she wasn't completely sure what had happened. Waking up in her cage that day, being loaded onto the platform, her fight with Rex-it had all seemed like a dream, or rather, a nightmare. She figured her uncertainty came from how a lot of her memory from when she was in her primitive state went away when her memories from her tame state returned. What was left was apparently still there, but wasn't strong enough to form fully in her conscious.

"We did? Then maybe I don't want to know the details," he replied with a tone of attempted humor. He gave a hearty chuckle, but immediately winced afterwards, and Cleo assumed it was from his injured sides. Her sorrowful expression grew at his pain. It was then that she let herself assess her own injuries. Aside from her right arm, which felt like it had been bitten, she felt some pain at the end of her tail. It too felt like it had been bitten. Other than that, she didn't feel any more wounds on herself.

_I must have done more damage to him than he did to me_, she thought. _I couldn't imagine how vicious I must have been to get so wrapped up in a fight. _Her thoughts reminded her of the children. She looked over towards the center of the arena. Louie and Cecilia seemed to just have finished up, with them being gathered into Dweeb's arms. She noticed that Elsa, Dweeb, and Woog were all back to their tame states, shown by their brightened colors. Her eyes wondered, and noticed that the three were all still chained to large black balls. She looked down, and saw that she and Rex still had braces around their ankles where their chains must have linked to.

"What is it?" Rex's voice came. She lifted her head back up to look at him.

"You and I still have our ankle bracelets on us, and the others are still restrained by those large balls. How are we going to get them off? Not one of us dinosaurs is strong enough to break metal, and I don't suppose any of the audience has a hack saw with them," she replied, adding some humor to the last part.

Suddenly, a bright light shone from above. Cleo looked up, and saw that a strong source of light was coming closer to the top of the tent. Two small blades each appeared at two different points at the top, stabbing through the canvas. Then the two blades moved in a large circle with each other, making a snipping sound as they went, a snipping sound that reminded Cleo of scissors. The circle the supposed scissors were making was completed in a moment, and the canvas of the tent began to fall. The canvas slipped down the pole frames and crashed to the ground, causing a huge dust cloud to rise over the whole scene. Cleo looked down, closing her eyes as the dust rose, but it quickly settled again. She looked back up again, and around the bright light coming from the bottom of it like a huge spotlight, she made out a very familiar airship.

_It's Captain Neweyes!_ she thought happily, not feeling that she, the other dinosaurs, and their children friends, were alone anymore. However, her relief and happiness quickly faded as thoughts from the back of her mind caused guilt to grow inside her again. She then heard a familiar pep-rally-like whistling. In the bright light, she could make out a tiny figure next to two objects coming from inside the ship that looked like arms. The "arms" snapped upwards, and one whipped back downwards, sending a ball of what appeared to be fire.

"Do-do-do-doo! Incomingggggggggg!" came the voice Cleo then recognized as Vorb. Cleo followed the ball of fire with her eyes, and noticed it seemed to dart straight for Elsa. When the ball of fire was close, Cleo flinched away, afraid of what would happen. Memories arose in her mind, of her standing at the edge of the airship's hole, and then when she discovered the packs they had for their drop were parachutes.

_I had doubted the Captain's intentions then, and was proven wrong. Why should I doubt him now?_ she thought rhetorically to herself. She turned back around to look, and saw that the brace around Elsa's neck, where her point of restraint was, was completely gone. Surprised, Cleo looked back up to the ship. The arms were tossing more fire balls down to them. She saw one fly her way, but she didn't flinch this time. She instead watched as it darted straight for her legs, and impacted one of her ankle braces, disintegrating it into nothing. Before she could lift her head back up, another fire ball appeared in her view, and disintegrated the other ankle brace. She looked back over to the platform, and noticed that all the braces on the others were all gone, and she supposed Rex's were gone, as well. She then heard popping noises from above. She raised her head and saw fireworks coming from the ship and exploding in the air above the tent.


	16. Guilt, Doubt, and Forgiveness

While she watched the fireworks, she saw a silhouetted rectangle in the light coming from the hole on the bottom of the ship. She was a bit suspicious on what it was, and her suspicion only grew to a knowing as the rectangle shape grew bigger as it seemed to descend to the ground.

_Captain Neweyes is coming down on the platform. What am I gonna say? Surely he'll know all that I've done_, she thought worriedly. When the platform touched the ground, Cleo noticed that Neweyes had a glare on his face, directed at Screweyes.

"Brother," Neweyes said bluntly and somewhat bitterly, as he began stepping off the platform.

"I should have known _you_ were behind this," Screweyes growled in response as Neweyes stepped towards Louie.

"I knew by the time I had arrived, this boy had beaten you," Neweyes replied. Then he turned to Cecilia. "I heard your wish on my wish radio **very** good. 'Let no bad happen.' Couldn't agree more," he told her with a wide smile and a very pleased, and perhaps proud, tone.

"Cleo?" Rex's voice came. Cleo broke her zoned observing of the humans to turn her head so she could look at Rex.

"Yeah, Rex?" she replied questioningly.

"I think I can keep myself up now. Thanks for the help," he told her with a small smile. She looked at him for a couple seconds, feeling her guilt again from knowing she was the cause of his pain, before she put a small smile on her own face.

"Don't mention it."

Cleo slipped her arm from around his back, gingerly positioning it back down at her side. Then she looked back over at the others. She noticed Neweyes looking at her. He turned one hand over to make a gesture with his index finger in a way of asking her to go over to him. She made a small gulp before starting to walk over to him. As she started to walk, she heard Rex's voice.

"Louie?" Rex seemed to softly call to the boy in question. Louie paced back towards Rex at the same time Cleo was stepping towards Neweyes. She turned her head back as she continued walking. Rex had lowered his upper half down so that he could be at eye level with Louie.

"Are you all right, Rex?" Louie asked, as more of a way to ask Rex if there was something wrong that was worrying him.

"Did I do anything bad?" Rex asked, still in his soft, troubled voice.

"No, no. You were great," Louie replied with a slightly joyous laughter in his voice as he patted Rex's snout. Cleo turned her head back around.

"Well, that makes one of us," she mumbled sadly, returning her thoughts to Rex's injuries and imagining how vicious she believed she must have been in her primitive state.

"Cleo…" Neweye's voice broke her out of her thoughts. She noticed that he had a neutral tone to his voice; no signs of upset or disappointment, but also no signs of approval. Nevertheless, there was something in his tone that was urging her to say something for herself, and it worked.

"I know, Professor, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for sneaking off the ship after you told me to stay behind, but I believed I was ready to test myself. I now understand completely what you were worried about with me, and you were right. I am capable of inflicting harm. I'm sorry I doubted your judgement," she said with a sad, regretful look on her face. She hung her head while she drooped her body expressively to her guilt, and lowered her eyes to the ground.

"And I'm sorry _I_ doubted _you_, Cleo," Neweye's voice came. Surprised, Cleo raised her head to look at him.

"What?"

"When I saw my brother's arm in a cast and arm sling, I figured nothing else could have done that but you. I took from it that you are capable of directing your more harmful side at the right people, not innocents, and even then, you have a good level of restraint, so I know you're not capable of killing anyone," Neweyes explained, his tone a bit more positive than he started with. Cleo looked back at Rex for a moment, then back to Neweyes.

"I'm not so sure about that…" she said, letting her guilt show in her voice.

"That wasn't really you, Cleo," Neweyes began, "That was you under the Brain Drain. You can't blame yourself for what you did when you didn't know any better." Cleo perked up some, undrooping her body, and her facial expression of guilt fading into beginnings of a hopeful one.

"You forgive me, then?" she asked in a feeble voice.

"Yes, I forgive you, Cleo. The question is, can you forgive yourself?" he asked. The question surprised Cleo. She thought about all that he said, considering the truth in each part of it: her restraint even against bad people, and her primitive self not knowing any better.

"I can try, captain," she replied softly, giving him a small smile.

Just then, there was a small whistle. Before Cleo could look for the source, Vorb appeared next to Neweyes.

"Captain Neweyes, it's time to go!" the little green alien announced excitedly before zipping off while crying out, "Do-do-do-doo!" in his pep rally tone.

"All right, everyone, on board," Neweyes called out, mainly to the dinosaurs, "I've got a surprise for you." Right then, a tiny, blue and red old-fashioned car with a yellow grill rushed onto the scene. Its driver was none other than the clown, Stubbs, who was apparently too big for the car, as his feet were sticking right up out of it, over each side of the car, as if he was sitting _on top of_ the seat because he couldn't fit himself to sit in it. He turned the car around in a half circle right in front of Louie and Cecilia, somehow braking it at the same time.

"Good night folks!" Stubbs cried out, but seemingly to either no one, or everyone, as he waved his arm up into the air. Then he looked directly at Louie. "Good night, Louie," he said, waving his arm in the same way.

"Good night, Stubbs," Louie replied, with slight humor in his voice as he gave his own wave back at the clown. Stubbs then bounced in his tiny car, making it move forward again, and he steered it into a big U-turn, heading straight for the opening with the robotic archway in the form of an evil skull with a jester's hat on it, with metal legs ending in jester shoes. Cleo studied the archway for a second, figuring it's where the circus attractions entered the arena. Just then, there was a loud clapping sound, like someone stomping a foot as hard as they could. Cleo noticed that Stubbs halted the car dead in its tracks at the sound. She looked over and saw Screweyes standing about in the center of the arena, glaring directly at Stubbs.

"Stubbs, where do you think you're going?" he growled angrily. "Get back here!" he commanded, stomping his heel, but not hard enough to make a sound. Cleo felt her familiar irritation towards Screweyes, but kept it in check, letting the two circus men to work out some obvious problem between them.

"Oh, I forgot to tell ya…" Stubbs began, his voice a little quiet due to his distance. "I QUIT!" he shouted, making sure he's heard that time.


	17. Be Free Like a Bird

"I quit!" he exclaimed again, bouncing in his tiny car, somehow backing it up all the way to do another complete spin as it halted in front of Screweyes, as Stubbs was saying, "I resign! To get this completely in your ear, I am profoundly outta here!" Cleo looked back at Screweyes to see his reaction, only to find that Screweyes didn't seem to be phased at all with his clown quitting, only lighting a cigarette in a holder as Stubbs continued his rant while raising himself up to Screweyes's eye level on a small ladder coming from inside the tiny car.

'And this thing about money. I ain't even complaining about my dry-cleaning bill, but hang around with elephants all day and try to keep _your_ clothes clean!" At this, there was laughter all around coming from the bleachers. Cleo herself allowed a small smirk form at one end of her lips at how good the clown was with the crowd. She even saw him react to them by briefly taking his hat off, wiggle his ears while giving a wide, open-mouth smile for the crowd, before replacing his hat and his serious expression while turning back toward Screweyes.

'But that's not the point. The point is, I quit. Quitsky, over and out-ster. That's all she wrote. Take my last check, buddy," Stubbs continued, while pointedly taking cash from under his hat, and slamming it down into Screweyes's hand, and started taking other things off his person and tossing them into Screweyes's arms, who had dropped his cigarette holder in the process.

'Here's my shoes, my nose, my horn, my buzzer…" Cleo couldn't help but feel a sense of satisfaction from seeing Screweyes get visibly zapped from what was clearly a hand buzzer, from how it occurred upon Stubbs taking one of Screweyes's hands in what turned out to be a prank handshake, as Stubbs let his whole arm pop out. At first Cleo was taken aback at how his arm just came off, but realized it was a prank item as well.

'…my fake arm, my bug-eye glasses…" Stubbs then began taking more items out of his pants.

'…my backstage passes, my hat…" At this, Stubbs pulled his hat off again, and reaching into it, pulled out a white rabbit dressed in similar orange and white plaid overalls.

'…my rabbit, his backstage passes, my fake fangs, a few birds, my pogo stick, my donkey ears…" Cleo couldn't help but give a lighthearted chuckle at seeing Stubbs slap donkey ears on the increasingly overwhelmed Screweyes, who was just barely holding everything in his arms as it was.

'…my extended tongue gag, my rubber chicken…" Stubbs then got off his pogo stick so that he could be standing in place when he then reached under his shirt, and pulled out what looked like a giant tooth, while saying "(You can't even get these anymore!)… my lucky whale tooth…"

Stubbs then took out a microphone stand from behind his back, gesturing back to his tiny car behind him, on which there was now a spotlight, and where a giant clam shell had appeared. The clam shell was slowly opening as Stubbs went on, his voice announcing it more rapidly than ever.

'And a giant clam that opens to reveal the American flag held by a mermaid…" Cleo noticed how there was indeed a mermaid in the clam, with a green part that made up her tail and came up all the way to her chest, and she had lavender hair. The flag she was holding draped down, revealing a regular man wearing glasses, having a small mustache, and on his head was two tufts of hair behind each ear, with a long growth of hair coming from one and styling itself across his balding head, but not making it all the way.

'…and her normal brother Richard," Stubbs concluded, facing the clam shell display. He then stepped over to the display, next to "Richard," and taking out a green handkerchief with white polka dots, waving it in the air in a departure gesture. "So long!"

Stubbs then leaped behind the clam shell into his tiny car, and started driving it around the clam shell display, stopping it next to Screweyes, who was still struggling under the weight of all of Stubbs' possessions.

"And oh, by the way," the clown started in a casual voice, "In case you're wondering why I'm talking, and they're laughing, let me explain it to ya…" Stubbs then paused for effect.

'THAT'S..COMEDY!" he shouted into Screweyes's face, causing the professor to flinch his whole body away even while he was still holding Stubbs's things. Stubbs then turned away, and drove out of the arena the way he was going to, with a spotlight following him on the way out.

Cleo then sensed a change in the presence around her, or rather, the lack there of. She looked back at the group that consisted of her fellow dinosaurs, the two children, and Captain Neweyes, and noticed that they were all getting on top of the elevator platform for Neweyes's airship. Without another thought, she followed suit, standing behind Woog, and looked back at Screweyes. He was now readjusting his appearance, putting his top hat back on.

"Will you change your ways and come with me?" Neweyes asked his brother. Screweyes half turned toward them, and Cleo was sure that if the screw-head eye showed expression, he would be glaring at them from the corner of it as he plucked the red ball clown nose of his long one.

"Never!" he growled with resolve.

"Then, we must go," Neweyes replied, his tone showing a bit of disappointment, but there was more of a hopelessness tone about it, as if that proposition was Neweyes's last attempt to change his brother, but was disappointed, and now Neweyes had decided that his brother would never change. At Neweyes's reply, the platform began to rise, and Cleo noticed that the lights in the circus were beginning to fade until the light coming from the airship was the only source of light in the circus arena, apart from a spotlight that was left on and shining down at the center of the arena, where Screweyes was standing. She also saw that as they began to rise higher, Screweyes had turned back and was looking up at them, but he was too far away by then for her to make out his facial expression. She did, however, notice small black dots appear from the darkness and begin to circle around over Screweyes.

_Black dots circling in a flying manner…they must be his crows_, she thought. _Peculiar, they remind of vultures, flying in a circle like that…_

She continued to let her thoughts puzzle it over, if but out of spite that she had her mind back, and was finally free from Screweyes's control. As Neweyes set the course for the next destination, she continued to think about the crows that had perched themselves across Screweyes's circus, and she wondered how controlled or free-willed they really were.


	18. On With the Plan

The short ride to the Museum was quiet; all of the airship's passengers in their own silent state of a mix of thinking of all of what had happened with them at the circus, and relishing in the relief that it was all over, and they were finally going to get on with the reason they were sent to the city in the first place.

Cleo had stopped thinking about the crows, and she instead watched the others on how they were unwinding from the events from the past couple days. Dweeb and Woog were snacking on hot dogs, of course. Elsa was standing on Rex's shoulder (his good one), balancing herself by holding one hand on the back of his head, and together they were watching the two human children with fondness. Louie and Cecilia were sitting down together in front of the dinosaurs, with Cecilia leaning herself against Louie, and Louie lightly wrapping one arm around her. Neither was looking at the other, but one could tell that their relationship was budding in their thoughts.

Cleo found her eyes wondering back onto Rex's injuries, and small traces of guilt reappeared at the pit of her stomach.

_"__You can't blame yourself for what you did when you didn't know any better," _Neweyes's voice resounded in her mind. _"The question is, can you forgive yourself?"_

_"I can try, captain."_ Reminded of her own reassurance, she felt the traces of guilt fade.

_Captain Neweyes is right_, she thought to herself._ What's done is done, and it's all in the past now. I should forgive myself for my actions and move on, and make sure I learn from it._

Cleo then felt the ship start to slow down; they must have been closing in on the Museum. She noticed the others start to come out of their relaxed positions and move towards the platform that would lower them down and out of the ship. Cleo stepped over to the platform, next to the circular hole that would be their exit.

00000000000

A few minutes later, they were stepping up to the museum. Rex had taken the lead after Captain Neweyes, with Dweeb coming up behind on Rex's left side, and Woog on the right. Elsa was perched on Woog's right horn, and Louie and Cecilia were on his back. At first, the children wanted to ride on Rex, but it was instantly decided that that would be a bad idea, due to his injuries. Cleo came up last, in between Dweeb and Woog, and as they walked, she took in the sight of what would become their new home. The building was impressive in size, even to a dinosaur. Lined all around the building were lights that seemed to be shining up from the ground, and faint lights shown through the windows that made the building appear like it had three stories. The wide stairs that led up to the front double doors were split into two flights, and in the middle of the midway landing, was a tall statue of a man on a horse. As they walked, the dinosaurs were easily able to skip the bottom flight of stairs in one step onto the midway landing.

When they were all gathered at the door, Neweyes knocked hard on one of the doors. Cleo could hear a small sound inside, like a voice, but it was too muffled to make out. The double doors were cracked open, and Doctor Bleeb's small form appeared in between them. As soon as she saw them, her expression instantly changed to happy. Cleo couldn't blame her; they were supposed to have all ready been there over twenty-four hours ago.

"Ah, welcome, welcome," Bleeb greeted them, while pushing each door wide open-the left with her hands, the right with her back. "You've taken so long, I almost gave up." She proceeded to shake Neweyes's hand while she went on.

'But the good captain explained," she told the dinosaurs, briefly patting Neweyes's hand, the same one she shook, as Neweyes led the group inside. "You've had so many adventures. Well, you must be tired after such doings," she continued, briefly patting one of Woog's cheeks.

'This way, please. We need to move to a more comfortable room." Dr. Bleeb proceeded to lead them further into the museum. Cleo noticed that the museum appeared to have rooms coming off its halls, each with a large door, so she assumed that meant that each room was impressive in size on its own.

The room Dr. Bleeb led them to seemed to be a very large, very spatial lounge, lit by a few lamps with orange shades. There were a few large pillows set up around the room, and a green chair by one corner next to the large windows, out of which there was a good view of the city. It was there at the windows that Rex decided to settle himself, heading straight for a spot by the windows, while Woog settled down on one of the pillows. While Dweeb sat down next to him on his left, Louie and Cecilia slid down off of Woog and sat themselves on the pillow in front of him, between him and the green chair, in which Dr. Bleeb was sitting down. Elsa moved from her perch on Woog, to on top of Dweeb's head. Captain Neweyes took a chair by the wall on Dweeb's left. Cleo situated herself on a pillow to Woog's right. She glanced out the windows, taking in the sea of small lights, with an almost full moon in the sky. It reminded her of when they first saw the city. She glanced at Rex, and from the look of admiration on his face, he was probably reminiscing of that moment too.

"I'm sure you'll sleep well tonight," Bleeb started telling them, "Have your dreams of this beautiful world, and tomorrow, you'll begin to fulfill the wishes of many children. We'll make believe you're statues." Then she leaned forward and put a hand up around next to one of her cheeks, in a brief gesture as if she were letting them in on a secret. Cleo sensed movement, and turning her head, she saw Rex starting to sit down on a pillow to her right, completing a semi-circle around Dr. Bleeb.

'The adults will wait outside as you reveal the miracle of yourselves to the young…" Cleo considered this, remembering how during the parade, after Rex's spontaneous song and dance revealed them all as real live dinosaurs, the children were not afraid of them, but the adults went into mass panic.

_With this plan to leave their parents outside, that is sure not to happen again_, Cleo thought, a small smirk creeping on her face.

'…It will be very good. It will be very good indeed."

000000000000

The next morning, Cleo woke up more refreshed than she could remember feeling in a while, despite the spots of soreness she could feel in her arm and tail. She tried to search her memory for what could have happened after she took Screweyes's Brain Drain a couple nights prior that would have prevented a proper sleep. All she could remember was split-second images of a cage, and the clown, Stubbs, holding something, but that part of the memory was too blurry to make it out. Dismissing the matter, she decided to see what the others were up to. She looked towards the door of the lounge, where they had slept, seeing that it was open. She got up from her laying position, and stepped over to the door. She saw that the other dinosaurs were all ready awake and in the main hall, but they were standing in a horizontal line, with their backs to the lounge, and staring at something off to the side. Cleo figured how they were still standing there in awe, that they hadn't been awake much longer than she had. She walked up to them, wondering what had gotten their attention. She followed their gazes, and saw that there was a giant set of golden curtains hanging over one wing of the museum.

"Oh, good, you're all awake." Cleo looked down to see Dr. Bleeb coming up to them. "You all need to follow me. It's almost time to let the visitors in."

"Where are the kids that were with us?" Cleo couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, the boy is over there," Bleeb replied, pointing behind them. Cleo, along with the others, all turned their heads. Louie was standing at a little podium with what appeared to be a large book on it. Noticing them all looking at him, Louie waved at them. "He's going to be managing the guestbook for me today." Cleo turned back to Bleeb, sensing she had more to say; the others had done the same.

'The girl is going to help me reveal the exhibit to our visitors. Now, this way, please."

Dr. Bleeb then began to walk from the way she came, further back into the museum. The dinosaurs followed behind her to the gold curtains. Standing next to the curtains was Cecilia, who had a pleased look on her face as the dinosaurs approached the enclosed area in the wing. Bleeb paused at the curtains to fling them open a little so that the dinosaurs could find and slink through where the curtains split. Behind the curtains was an area with a half circle of gold posts connected by red tubular ropes that appeared like they could unhook on either end in between the posts. The area itself featured a stage. The backdrop of it was painted to look like a dry land setting in the foreground next to a prehistoric rainforest in the background. On the left side of the stage was a large fern plant to go along with the theme.

"Okay, gang, take positions there on the stage, and I'll go let our guests in," Bleeb instructed, right before starting to walk away, towards the front of the building. Cleo followed the others in the area. Rex took up a spot on the right side of the stage, freezing himself into a pose with his head tilted up some, his eyes wide open and his arms outstretched as far as his bruised shoulder would allow. Dweeb stood next to him, his pose with his arms dangling downward, his head tilted up some and a little sideways. Woog stood next to Dweeb, only staring straight ahead. Elsa stood on his back, with her arms raised up some, showing off her wings, but not enough to show her full wingspan. Cleo followed behind them, taking the spot next to Woog on the far left side of the stage. She decided to go with a natural pose, and posed her tail around behind Woog and Dweeb, hunched herself down some, and tilted her head down some, and let her mouth hang slightly ajar.

After a few moments, Cleo could hear footsteps, followed closely by the faint sound of many sets of feet, and small sounds of chatter. Dr. Bleeb appeared between the curtains. She gave them a smile and a thumbs-up, letting them know the children had arrived. Then she turned back to the curtains.

"Oh!" she said, sounding surprised to see the guests. "Thank you, thank you, I'll take them from here, please," she told someone, presumably Cecilia, while the curtains were drawn back some.

'Come on, children, this way."


	19. Epilogue

Cleo sat in the lounge of the museum, next to a podium with a large custom-made magnifying glass that had a light built in it, reading a magazine she had borrowed from the library the day before, turning the small pages with a claw. In the past two years they had been there in New York, for the most part, the adults had grown used to the dinosaurs, with a lot of help from their children, who had eventually convinced Dr. Bleeb to let the adults watch how the dinosaurs interacted with their children, and over time the adults learned that they were not any threat to anyone. Now the dinosaurs were able to walk (or in Elsa's case, fly) through the city freely without worry of every adult going into mass panic again, like they did the year when the dinosaurs had first arrived, when Rex exposed them during the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now the adults would at least acknowledge their presence before continuing on their way, though some would actually greet them. The children, of course, would always greet them with smiles and waves.

Thinking of children, Cleo was reminded of their two first human children friends, Louie and Cecilia. In the past two years, the two had quickly grown closer, and often went out on dates (as humans call them), such as row boating in Central Park. Aside their relationship, they often visited the dinosaurs in the museum. They would tell stories about how much closer they've become with their parents. Louie once told a story about how he went with his parents and three brothers to the Statue of Liberty, and had a great time. Cecilia once spent a day with her parents when they finally came home, and they all redecorated their condominium home. Cleo can also still remember the big smile on Cecilia's face when she told them how her parents promised that they would plan around their schedules so that they could spend every annual "Family Night" with her.

Another memory came to Cleo. On the day of their reveal in the museum, after they had introduced themselves, and while the children rushed to them to play with them, she had met a particular young boy who had been staring at her with not fear or intimidation, but curiosity and awe. He had light, almost golden skin and brown eyes.

_"What are you?" _He had asked with pure curiosity and interest in his voice.

_"I'm a Spinosaurus. I don't know if you've heard of my kind,"_ she had replied sincerely with a friendly smile, slight worry showing in her tone.

_"No, I haven't, but I think you're the coolest looking dinosaur I've ever seen!"_ He had replied, a huge grin spreading on his face. Cleo had grown a smile to mirror his at the compliment.

Cleo smiled fondly at the memory. That same boy had recently visited the museum again, and told her that he saw something similar to her in a science magazine, how it said something about a war, and a museum getting bombed, and all the exhibits in it were destroyed. Cleo was now reading the same magazine about the subject, and found that what the boy had said was all true. She had been surprised when she learned some time ago that her wetland home that she grew up in was now all part of a vast desert, but she wasn't expecting what she was learning now. She had read on to learn that there was a museum in a city called Munich that was destroyed in a "World War." Only a few photographs survived to preserve what was in the museum. A particular photograph stood out to Cleo, of what appeared to be some dinosaur bones, from a dinosaur with a large sail on the back, and from the bottom jaw bone, a fairly long snout; she recognized the incomplete skeleton as one of her kind.

_It's no wonder my kind isn't known by now_, Cleo thought. _If that museum hadn't been destroyed, then maybe my kind would be as commonly known as the T. Rex._

Cleo then heard humming. She looked up from the magazine in time to see Rex walking into the museum. Within the past two years, the dinosaurs had taken up hobbies on the weekends when Dr. Bleeb would give them time for themselves; not that meeting and playing with children all day wasn't fun. In fact, Cleo found that being around human children was good for her; not once in the past two years had she felt her animalistic instincts or aggression. All the same, it was a nice gesture how Bleeb wanted them to have time to unwind themselves from their museum job. Dweeb and Woog took up jobs as hot dog vendors around the city, sometimes appearing at the huge sports arenas in the city. Elsa started helping the local law enforcement with spotting criminals from the air, and she was even developing excellent camouflage skills, disguising herself as a gargoyle on a building as not to give herself away when stalking criminals. Cleo helped Bleeb with the other exhibits in the museum, either with helping put up tall signs, banners, or the like, or with guiding visitors. As for Rex, after he had fully recovered from his injuries from the incident at the circus (though he'll have three linear scars on the back of his neck for a long time still), he had taken a liking to a game called "golf." He even got a tailor to fashion him a custom-fitted white golf shirt and matching cap, and he bought a big pair of black shades to go with the ensemble. He would spend a lot of his weekends going to the golf course to play a game or two. However, he wasn't usually this late. It was past dark, and he was just now arriving back.

"Hey, Rex!" Cleo called through the open doorway. Rex paused to look at her. "You're later than usual. What'd you do, stop to chat with the birds?" she teased. They'd grown to be close friends these past two years, so much so that the incident at the circus was a story to laugh at now. Cleo had also long since learned how to forgive herself for the injuries she inflicted on him. He gave her a big smile and gave a hearty chuckle.

"As a matter of fact, I did. I was telling a little blue tough guy named Buster the story about us," he told her, in apparent very good humor. Cleo wasn't sure how much of his humor was brought on by her tease, and how much was from an apparently good day at the golf course, but she dismissed the thought.

"Oh. Okay then," Cleo replied, trying to keep a tone of humor, but she was a little humbled how her tease backfired. Rex gave another hearty laugh, then continued on his way into the museum, while picking back up on his humming. Cleo could almost hear him mutter words along with the tune:

"_Roll back the rock to the dawn of time…_" Cleo couldn't help but smile. Despite how it was a bad idea during that parade two years prior, Cleo couldn't deny that Rex's song was catchy, and it brought up a lot of good memories. She turned back to the magazine, but found that she couldn't focus on the content. Instead, she found herself humming the same, very familiar tune. She smiled a little wider while she hummed, knowing in the back of her mind that she didn't have to think of the tune; it came from her mind on its own, like an instinct.


End file.
